“Lapse” Eviction OK’d After Sec. 8 Debate

Johnathan Cruz is ready to leave Connecticut and return to New York City. 

He just wishes that a state judge had given him and his 3‑year-old son a bit more time to vacate their Beers Street apartment.

Cruz, 42, offered that take Thursday afternoon from the front stoop of an eight-unit apartment building across the street from Augusta Lewis Troup School in the Dwight neighborhood.

With a mixture of frustration and determination, Cruz said he’ll be moving to Queens at the end of April to be near his uncle and to start a full-time job as a maintenance worker at a public housing complex.

He was hoping to leave the Mandy Management-controlled apartment building on Beers Street by the end of May, to have a bit more time to save up for the cost of moving and to enroll his 3‑year-old son in a new daycare. 

Now he’s required to vacate his second-floor apartment by April 30 at the latest.

That’s because, earlier on Thursday — after hearing extensive testimony from Cruz, Mandy Management property manager Zalmy Weiss, and Mandy-hired attorney Dana Guiliano — state Superior Court Judge Juliett Crawford concluded a state housing court summary process trial by granting the local megalandlord’s lapse-of-time eviction lawsuit against the Beers Street tenant.

Crawford ordered Cruz to vacate his apartment by the end of April. She did not order him to pay his landlord for use and occupancy over the next month, even though Cruz admitted that he hasn’t paid rent since last August. 

At the center of the case was Cruz’s attempt to stay on in his late mother’s apartment at the same subsidized rental rate of $21 per month that she had been paying, even though he was unsuccessful in getting her Section 8 federal rental subsidy transferred to his name after she died last Spring. (See more below.)

“He has had plenty of time to save up for this money, since he has been rent free since September,” Mandy’s attorney, Guiliano, said during the eviction case court hearing, which was livestreamed on YouTube.

“I’m struggling as it is right now,” Cruz responded. ​“I work part time. I’m still paying for daycare, back child support,” for gas, electricity, and Internet at the Beers Street apartment. ​“I have no family [in New Haven]. Right now my money is tied into moving. I can’t pay for a new apartment in New York City and relocate” by the end of April.

“A stay is granted until April 30,” Crawford ordered. ​“And at this point, I’m not going to order anything further in terms of use and occupancy. Given what [Cruz] explained, it may be true; it may not be true. But given that it’s a limited stay, I’m not going to give any further orders.”

According to this CTMirror article, eviction filings in Connecticut are on track to reach their highest monthly number since 2017. That article also states that the UniteCT rent relief program stopped taking new applications as of mid-February, and that all of the $400 million-plus in federal pandemic-relief money that the state had dedicated to rental assistance has either been distributed or is in the process of being given out.

February also saw the launch of the state’s new right to counsel program, which provides legal representation for tenants facing eviction in 16 zip codes across Connecticut. In New Haven, those zip codes include 06511, 06513, and 06519.

The Independent has been looking at some of the new cases to get a glimpse of who’s losing their homes, and why.

On his front stoop after the hearing, Cruz said he has accepted the judge’s hearing — and, truth be told, he’s ready to leave New Haven.

“Connecticut is not a good place for a person of color,” he said. It’s more of a place for people to come, get an education, and then move on to bigger and better things in their lives.

Having spent his fair share of time in and out of prison, Cruz said, he’s had trouble holding down a full-time job and finding an apartment of his own. Ultimately, he moved in with his mom in 2016, after she was displaced from the now-demolished former Church Street South apartment complex and found the Mandy apartment on Beers Street. 

Now that she has passed away, he and his child have no reason to stay in New Haven. 

Cruz said he’s already started reaching out to family to see if anyone can provide some expedited financial support to help him move sooner than he had hoped. He said he’ll also likely ask his part-time employer in Wallingford for a loan.

“You just have to have faith in God, and find resources” where you can, he said.

Asked for his take on Thursday’s eviction judgment, Mandy Management’s Yudi Gurevitch replied by email, ​“In light of the court’s decision to grant the eviction of Jonathan Cruz and his young son for lapse of time, we are once again reminded that there are no winners in such cases. However, we are a business and as such, we have operating expenses, staff who depend on us to pay their salaries, and banks that expect regular, on-time payment of loan obligations. And, taxes to pay to the City of New Haven, insurance, and so forth.

“Filing eviction notices is always a last resort. When tenants don’t (or can’t) pay rent for whatever reason, we make every effort to work with them to find a resolution. In this case, Mr. Cruz did not qualify for Section 8 voucher nor did he pay rent and we had no choice but to file. We care about our tenants very much. But unfortunately, sometimes we are required to make some very hard decisions.”

In Court: Lapse Of Time. John, Jane Doe?

So. What was exactly was Cruz’s eviction case about? And what happened in virtual court on Thursday?

According to state court records in the case Netz Add LLC vs. Johnathen Cruz, the Mandy-affiliate landlord filed the eviction lawsuit against Cruz on Dec. 2. 

The first count of the lawsuit stated that Cruz’s oral month-to-month lease had expired due to lapse of time, that he was served a notice to quit on Oct. 27, and that he had to vacate the apartment by Nov. 29. According to the complaint, that oral lease included an $810 monthly rent for the apartment.

A second count of the lawsuit claimed that an anonymous John and Jane Doe were also living at the Beers Street apartment, and that they had to leave because they had no right to occupy the apartment. A third count stated that the defendants’ right or privilege to occupy the apartment had been terminated. 

In a Dec. 13 legal answer filing, Cruz wrote that his landlord had told him to pay only ​“Section 8 rent of $21 dollars a month” rather than the full $810 identified in the lawsuit. He also claimed that his landlord ​“never gave [him] the letter to OK me to stay with help with Section 8.”

That brought the two sides on Thursday to virtual housing court, which was presided over by Judge Crawford, filling in in the absence of New Haven’s regular state housing court judge, John Cirello.

Mandy-hired attorney Dana Guiliano kicked off the summary process trial by asking Mandy property manager Zalmy Weiss a series of questions.

In October 2021, did you enter into an oral lease with Johnathen Cruz for a monthly rent of $810 at this Beers Street apartment?

Yes, he replied.

Is he still in possession of the apartment, even though you served a notice to quit and told him to leave by Nov. 29 at the latest?

Yes.

Do you believe that in addition to Mr. Cruz, there are an adult male and adult female also occupying the premises?

Yes.

“So today you’re requesting that the court grant you judgment of possession based on lapse of time for Mr. Cruz?”

Yes.

The judge then gave Cruz an opportunity to cross-examine Weiss. 

He started out by disputing the John and Jane Doe allegation. 

“I never brought anyone else in the apartment besides my 3‑year-old son, which I have emergency custody over,” he said. The judge stopped Cruz there, and told him that this was a time for the defendant to ask the plaintiff questions, not to make statements. 

So Cruz paused and regrouped. ​“You said that there’s a female and a male occupying” the apartment as well, he said to Weiss. ​“How did you come across that?”

“On reports from other people around the building that there had been other occupants,” Weiss said. There’s ​“no documentation. Just on reports.”

“There’s no other occupants,” Cruz said.

"Not Eligible To Take Over Her Voucher"

Crawford then asked Cruz to respond to the central allegations in the lapse-of-time lawsuit against him: that he had an oral month-to-month lease with the landlord, and that that lease has subsequently expired.

Cruz responded by telling the court about his mom.

His mom’s name was on the previous lease for this Beers Street apartment, he said. She was also the recipient of a federal Section 8 rental subsidy that allowed her to pay $21 a month in rent.

Towards the end of 2019, he said, his mom was quite ill with leukemia and Type 2 diabetes, and tried to start the process of transferring her Section 8 subsidy to Cruz. Cruz said that he and his mom tried to work with Mandy Management to get his name on the lease and to get the city’s housing authority, which is the local administrator of New Haven’s Section 8 program, to help transfer the subsidy.

Then the pandemic hit, Cruz said, and everything ground to a halt. His mom got sicker, and ended up in the hospital. His communications with the landlord and the Section 8 office broke down. He continued to stay in the apartment, even though his name wasn’t on the lease.

“I was juggling a job, taking care of my mother, paying the bills, and taking care of my son,” he said.

After a stint in the hospital, he said, his mom passed away in the spring of 2021. But he didn’t find out about her death until his landlord let him know in September. (Asked after the hearing how it took him so long to learn that his mom had passed away, he said that he wasn’t the legal caregiver for his mom, that he couldn’t visit her while she was in the hospital because of Covid-era restrictions, and that he had had a falling out with siblings who were in closer contact with his mom towards the end of her life.)

Hold on a second, the judge said. The claim in this eviction lawsuit is not nonpayment of rent. It’s lapse of time. What do you have to say about the lease being an oral month-to-month agreement?

It indeed was an oral month-to-month agreement, Cruz replied. But the ​“verbal agreement” was to pay $21 dollars until the lease was up. ​“That was the only agreement.” Not to pay the full monthly rent of $810.

“I’m saying we had an oral agreement to pay the difference of Section 8. I was supposed to pay $21. I never verbally told him I would pay $810 a month.”

Anything else you’d like to say about the lapse-of-time allegation? the judge asked.

“I have a place to go, but the place won’t be ready for 70 days,” Cruz said. It’s in New York City, he said. He’ll be closer to family. ​“I’m still working. I can’t just pull my son out of school, your honor.” He said he had tried to get help from the state’s UniteCT rental assistance program, but they are no longer taking new applications.

“I beg the court,” he said, for 70 more days before getting kicked out.

“This is not a nonpayment of rent case,” Crawford repeated. ​“This is that the time is up. Do you have any defenses as to why they shouldn’t be allowed to evict you given the terms of the agreement?”

“The only thing I can say is that we never had a verbal agreement for $810 a month,” Cruz repeated. ​“We had a verbal agreement for $21 a month to pay the difference of Section 8.”

“I just need the time,” Cruz implored the judge. ​“I’m just asking for the time.”

Guiliano then presented the court with a picture of an email from a local housing authority staffer to Zalmy Weiss. The undated email stated that Cruz’s mom was the only family member on the ​“HCV program” (or Housing Choice Voucher program, colloquially known as Section 8.) That email stated that Cruz ​“is not entitled to [his mom’s] voucher.”

“This is part of an email conversation between me and Tara Jones at New Haven Housing Authority Section 8 regarding his mom’s voucher and him being able to take over it,” Weiss said after being questioned by his attorney. ​“This is where she notified me that he is not eligible to take over her voucher. They have terminated it and will not be making payments going forward.”

Weiss said he received that email in September 2021. Without the Section 8 voucher, he said, Cruz’s full monthly rent owed is $810, not $21.

“We became aware that Mr. Cruz was attempting to stay on the Section 8 voucher of his mother,” Guiliano told the court.

The landlord’s attorney then turned to the tenant.

“Mr. Cruz, is it accurate to say that the only time you paid even the $21 was in August 2021?”

“Yes, it is,” Cruz replied.

“So you’ve made no payments? I realize this is a lapse-of-time case. So you’ve made no payments of any kind,” either $21 or $810?

“Yes, you’re correct,” he said.

Cruz said that he never received documentation from the Section 8 office saying that he was ineligible for his mom’s voucher. ​“That’s new to me, your honor,” he said. He stressed that in 2019 his mom ​“was going through the proceedings of doing the proper paperwork” to transfer her benefits to him. ​“But due to Covid, things broke down.”

As for back rent owed, Cruz said, he would be happy to pay his landlord an accumulated balance based on $21 per month, which is what he believed he owed based on an oral agreement he said he had with Mandy Management. But he can’t pay more than that because of the other expenses he has to account for for his upcoming move to New York City.

(Asked after the trial about why he hadn’t paid any rent since September, Cruz said he had an oral agreement with Mandy that he’d catch up on back rent after his mom’s lease expired and after he and his landlord struck a new deal for monthly rent.)

“I just need the time and I will be vacating the premises with no problem,” he told the court on Thursday. ​“If it was me, your honor, I would just leave the premises, but I have a three-year-old son.” 

"My Client Hasn't Been Paid"

In her closing statement, Guiliano said she is ​“sympathetic to Mr. Cruz’s circumstances.” But, she continued, ​“he was actually never an authorized occupant under the mother’s Section 8 contract. He may have been assisting her. But he was not an authorized caregiver. Under Section 8, he shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” She also said Cruz failed to notify the landlord and Section 8 that his mother had passed away in May 2021. And that he was not eligible to pay her subsidied share of the rent.

“My client hasn’t been paid at all since September 2021,” she said about the lapse-of-time eviction case. She said the landlord would agree to let Cruz stay in the apartment through April 30, and she asked the court to order a use and occupancy payment of $810 before then.

In his final statements to the court, Cruz repeated just how tight money is for him right now, and how he just needed a bit more time. 

He said his mom tried in good faith to transfer her Section 8 voucher to him, and that he believed he had an oral agreement with Mandy to keep paying the same share of rent that she had paid. 

“I’m begging the court and Mandy Management, please,” he said. Give him at least 60 days to move out.

Ultimately, the judge sided with the landlord, granting the lapse-of-time eviction, and staying the execution of that eviction until April 30. She declined to order Cruz to pay any use and occupancy to the landlord before then. 

“You have to be out of there by April 30,” she said, ​“or they can start” the process of executing the eviction order and forcing him out. 

Other recent stories about New Haven eviction cases working their way through housing court so far in 2022.

• Eviction Withdrawn After Rent Catch-up
• Hill Landlord Prevails In​“Lapse” Eviction
• Landlord Thwarted 2nd Time On Eviction
• Church Evicting Parishioner
• Hard-Luck Tenant Hustles To Stay Put
• Eviction Of Hospitalized Tenant, 74, Upheld
• Judge Pauses Eviction Amid Rent-Relief Qs
• Amid Rise In​“Lapse-of-Time” Evictions, Tenant Wins 3‑Month Stay
• Leaky Ceiling, Rent Dispute Spark Eviction Case