Eviction ​“Answers” Reveal Renters’ Struggles

“We were jobless for about a year.”

“Stage 4 cirrhosis requiring liver transplant and I am ineligible.”

“It rains inside my sons room and I use my mop bucket to catch the water.”

“I lost my mother and had to use money for funeral.”

Those are just a few of the explanations that New Haven tenants offered in response to a surge in eviction lawsuits — revealing a year marked by lost jobs, lost loved ones, surprise illnesses, and maintenance requests gone unheard, all as the city’s housing court kicked back into high gear.

In the ​“Answer” forms that tenants are asked to fill out when they respond to an eviction filing, three blank lines are allotted for ​“additional reasons why I should not be evicted.”

Some tenants etched their stories in a shaky hand. Others composed their replies in bubbly penmanship. The deeply personal responses flesh out the faceless legal terms, like ​“Nonpayment of rent” or ​“Lapse of time,” that categorize their cases.

Tucked inside streams of impersonal legal documents, the ​“answers” attest to the human stakes of the 1,712 eviction lawsuits filed against New Haven tenants in 2022. 

The Independent kept track of every eviction lawsuit filed in New Haven’s housing court this year, as recorded on the state court’s online database. While many cases were withdrawn or resolved without the court actually ordering a tenant out of their home, a review of dozens of these cases’ defendant-filed answers shines a light on some of the most common experiences — and frequently echoed pleas — of renters under legal threat of eviction.

“Haven’t been able to find a new place,” tenants repeated in those filings. 

“I just need a little more time.” 

“I have nowhere else to go.”

The stories told in these answer documents, and in interviews the Independent did all year with tenants at various stages of the eviction process, spoke to life-altering calamities like unemployment and illness; logistical challenges in moving or in processing rental assistance; and unsafe living conditions that prompted tenants to deliberately withhold rent.

All of this took place against the backdrop of a sharp statewide increase in eviction lawsuits in 2022 as many of Connecticut’s pandemic-era renter protections and relief programs expired.

“The fact of the matter is when a tenant stops paying rent, it negatively impacts cash flow,” Mandy Management​’s Yudi Gurevitch told the Independent in a set of email responses offering his perspective on the New Haven megalandlord’s many local eviction filings in 2022. ​“While the tenant is still in the unit, there are still operating expenses, creditors, vendors and employees that need to be paid regardless of a tenant’s ability to pay rent. We are operating a business, and as such, require cash flow to maintain solvency.”

Gurevitch continued: ​“Tenants, like many right now, have been heavily impacted by rising prices for essentials like groceries, electricity and gas. At the same time, our business is also experiencing higher wages, rising operating costs including heating oil, gas and, hot water, higher property taxes, insurance, construction and maintenance fees which weigh quite heavily on our bottom line. This confluence of economic events is making it difficult for everyone, forcing all of us to make hard decisions.”

The Cost Of Getting Evicted

For five years, Luis Ramos-Cruz rented his Fair Haven apartment from the church next door, Iglesia Cristiana Estrella Resplandeciente De Jacob. After months of missed rent — his lease called for $800 a month — the church evicted Ramos-Cruz in April.

The Independent first wrote about Ramos-Cruz’s case as it was playing out in court. In December, the Independent caught up with him by phone to see how the eviction had affected his life in the intervening months.

Since getting evicted last spring, Ramos-Cruz has been living in hotels: first the New Haven Inn, now the Regal Inn. While religious art from around the world adorned the walls of his Fair Haven apartment, Ramos-Cruz left those decorations behind. His hotel room has a king-sized bed and no kitchen. He faces constant reminders that the hotel room isn’t home, even though he’s lived there for nearly half a year. ​“Every 21 days, I have to leave the hotel for 24 hours, get another hotel, and then come back the next day,” Ramos-Cruz said. 

For this room, Ramos-Cruz is paying $345 a week, he said — plus “$140-something” per month for a storage room, plus $75 for a one-night stay in a hotel every three weeks. And since he has no kitchen, he’s been spending more on prepared food.

“I’m struggling to even pay the hotel sometimes,” he said.

Ramos-Cruz’ predicament speaks to the financial toll of getting evicted. As a group of New Haven Legal Assistance Association lawyers attested to during a December interview with the Independent, tenants often have to choose between going to court to fight for their homes and going to work to earn the income they desperately need. When tenants are kicked out, they’re often not only saddled with debt from back rent, but faced with moving costs and storage unit fees. And tenants are almost always responsible for paying their landlords’ legal costs, depending on the terms of the lease.

“Rental application fees are killing our clients,” noted legal aid Director of Litigation Shelley White. She’s had clients who paid application fees, which frequently reach $75, only to realize that the apartment is owned by a limited liability corporation (LLC) affiliated with the landlord trying to evict them. Effectively, they were paying their current landlords for applications that would never be accepted. 

“That makes my clients lose their minds,” White said. ​“And people wonder why they stop looking.”

Low Vacancies Lead to Tough Luck

Like many tenants that the Independent interviewed, Ramos-Cruz hasn’t yet been able to find an apartment he can afford.

“People think we’re made of gold,” he joked. He’s looking for ​“really small apartments,” which he said have often been going for $1,500 a month.

He’s up against a housing shortage that is acutely affecting New Haven. The city’s Department of Community Resilience Director Carlos Sosa-Lombardo reported that the New Haven-Milford area’s vacancy rate at the beginning of December was 1.3 percent at the beginning of December — a lower vacancy rate than the state’s 2.1 percent and the nation’s 5.6 percent.

The pandemic exacerbated this vacancy rate. ​“A lot of people have moved to Connecticut from New York since 2020,” explained legal aid attorney Sinclair Williams.

Williams said that of the evicted tenants he’s worked with in the past year, everyone he’s followed up with ended up without stable housing, either couch-surfing or on the streets. When tenants double-up with other families, they can place their hosts at risk of eviction, depending on the terms of the lease.

Many tenants wrote in their answers that they were looking for other housing options, but struggling to find another place to go:

“Ive been looking. I need more time to move havent found a new place yet. I want to leave on good terms. I am not denying myself from leaving I just need more time to find something” wrote one Blake Street tenant who wound up getting evicted from her apartment in September.

“I am in the process of finding a new place its not easy in this market. I just need a little more time,” wrote an Edgewood Avenue tenant whose eviction case was withdrawn by his landlord in April.

A low vacancy rate means that there’s more competition for housing, and that landlords can afford to be pickier about prospective tenants. Legal aid eviction attorney Rachel Scotch said she’s observed a rising trend of landlords requiring credit scores of at least 650 and salaries three times the cost of rent, conditions that most tenants facing eviction can’t meet. 

Increasingly, landlords are automatically screening out prospective renters with an eviction history — sometimes regardless of the outcome or circumstances of the case, legal aid attorneys said. Eviction cases that a judge has dismissed, or that a landlord has withdrawn, still remain in the public record for one year. Credit agencies may be able to pick up on those cases even after they are erased from the judicial system’s records, meaning that even eviction filings found to be unjustified can follow a tenant for years.

Living Conditions Deteriorate

Other answer filings reflected a myriad of maintenance issues that prompted tenants to withhold their rent.

Tenants frequently reported rodent infestations …

​“Infestation of mice and rats for which no extermination has ever been done causing the Defendant to have to endure the constant presence of rats and mice and their feces” wrote a Henry Street tenant who secured a ​“final stay by stipulation” with his landlord in September …

… leaks …

​“I lost all my things such as computer due to water,” wrote a Button Street tenant whose eviction case was withdrawn in April …

… mold …

​“I have called Mandy Management several times about mold growing in my 3 year old daughters room, they waited to serve me with papers to finally get a restoration company in since Ive moved in on April 6th 2021 this has been an issue they havent fixed. My daughter now has asthma because of it,” wrote an Ellsworth Avenue tenant who was evicted from her apartment in August …

… and a mix of all of the above …

“Maintenance. Request closed after placed for Rodents, stairs broken, exposed wires, & Mold,” wrote still another tenant.

In Connecticut, tenants do not have the right to simply withhold rent if their living conditions are not up to code. They can file a lawsuit and, with permission from the judge, pay their rent to housing court rather than to their landlord. But such permission is typically only granted when housing conditions are extreme, legal aid attorneys said.

Many tenants are unaware that they can withhold rent only by way of court. ​“Tenants think [ceasing to pay rent] is the only way they can get terrible conditions addressed,” said legal aid attorney Tyrese Ford.

Brittany Jones, a Button Street tenant whose eviction case was withdrawn in April, received an unexpected eviction notice in late 2021, after withholding rent due to maintenance concerns. Jones said her apartment had broken windows and a ceiling leak that caused water damage to her belongings. ​“My ceiling was collapsing,” she told the Independent.

According to Jones, both Livable City Initiative housing code inspectors and federal Section 8 rental subsidy inspectors came to her apartment. The inspectors found that her apartment wasn’t up to code, and Section 8 administrators decided to withhold the voucher’s coverage of her rent for a handful of months until the maintenance issues were addressed. Jones said she didn’t realize that she was still obligated to pay her portion of the rent during that time until an eviction notice was served at her door.

Occasionally, tenants accused landlords of illegally filing an eviction in retaliation for reporting housing conditions to the city:

“Made complaints about my living condition at the property. Had to call police a few times. I told them I’m reaching out to higher authority about the property (fire hazards) etc” wrote a Weybossett Street tenant whose eviction case was withdrawn in September.

During a recent group interview with the Independent, legal aid attorneys and paralegals sounded a plea for a stronger housing code enforcement mechanism in the city. While the city’s Livable City Initiative oversees housing code inspections and has increasingly fined some of the city’s largest landlords for violations, legal aid employees said that inspections and follow-up enforcement are nowhere near frequent enough to adequately tackle poor housing conditions faced by many low-income New Haveners.

Emergencies Compound

Many evicted tenants were just one emergency away — one hospitalization, one funeral, one month of unemployment — from falling behind on rent.

For Ramos-Cruz, that emergency was a 2021 car crash, which exacerbated pre-existing health conditions and prevented him from working as a mail carrier for months.

For Mamy and Moussa Kouyate, that emergency was a family member’s illness across the globe.

On Nov. 21, local megalandlord Mandy Management filed an eviction against Mamy, his brother Moussa, and their families, who have lived together in their Day Street apartment since 2015.

They paid rent every month, Mamy told the Indepependent, and had no issues for years — until a few months ago, when their aunt fell ill. Moussa traveled to their home country of Guinea to visit that aunt, and to help her hold onto her house amid financial troubles.

Moussa was still in West Africa when his half of the rent was due on the first of October. Mamy said that he spoke with a Mandy representative and explained that his brother would return on Nov. 8, that he’d be able to pay both months’ rent in full by then. 

“He said, ​‘No problem,’ ” Mamy recalled. ​“I was really surprised when I see the letter” stating that his landlord had instead initiated the formal eviction process, which starts with a notice to quit and can advance to a state court lawsuit and, eventually, a court-ordered removal order.

“I was scared because we’ve been here a long time. We always paid the rent,” he said. He couldn’t understand why Mandy filed an eviction despite their verbal agreement. ​“Someone who’s lived here a long time, who you don’t have any problems with, why do something like that?” 

According to the state court database, the Kouyates’ case remains in limbo.

“Our clients are always one bad situation away from an eviction,” said legal aid’s Shelley White. Those fateful bad situations range from broken-down cars to deaths upending family dynamics. ​“This is systemic. The people we represent are always on the edge, paycheck to paycheck.”

White and her colleagues agreed that most of their clients have jobs. 

“I have clients with multiple jobs and kids,” said eviction attorney Rachel Scotch.

“Sometimes, their kids are working,” added paralegal Mary Burton.

Stories of emergencies emerged in answer after answer reviewed by the Independent. They spoke to medical and financial difficulties that plagued families long before the pandemic, but that Covid-19 made more prevalent.

Some answers were marked with grief:

One Bank Street tenant facing eviction wrote: ​“My girl … past away 2 – 28-22 I didn’t no the lease was finish until May I try to find apartment. I be with her for 30 year. She did all the moving. I been looking for apartment for me and my stepson.” His case was ultimately withdrawn in November.

In another case, an Arch Street tenant wrote: ​“I have tried paying what I can I know thats no excuse. I am struggling with my two boys and my niece that I took in after my sister passed away 12/17/18. I have applied for programs I work hard if you can be a little more patient with me I can get on track and more. I just lossed another sister 7/21/22 please give me some time.” He wound up receiving a ​“non-final stay by stipulation” in September.

Others spoke to the personal consequences of widespread economic challenges:

“Due to the pandemic I had lost my job. Over the summer I notified management. I recently got a new job as of January (2022) and plan to start making all payments. I have a 20 month old and havent been find a new place,” wrote a West Division Street tenant whose case was withdrawn in April.

“Self employed prior to moving in. Had to wait a couple of months to move in after paying deposit. Within that time my business has took a hit causing me to work for an employer making less money. I take care of my 3 kids who reside at my place and my fiance. Became hard to take care of everything financially,” wrote a Carmel Street tenant whose case was also withdrawn in April.

Still others documented illnesses both related and unrelated to the pandemic:

“I feel I shouldnt be evicted because Im trying hard to pay the back balance. My husband had Covid off from work for a while and my income wasn’t enough over his to pay bills and rent,” wrote a Farren Avenue tenant who received a non-final stay by stipulation in August.

“Stage 4 cirrhosis requiring liver transplant and I am ineligible. Stage 3 ckd requiring dialysis now recovering. Ptsd, bipolar, personality adhd,” wrote a Welcome Street tenant who was evicted in September.

“Due to job loss from both adults in home. During job loss entire home had Covid-19 so two weeks went unpaid and put us behind. There are 3 dependents in home,” wrote still another tenant.

Waiting For Help

Over the course of 2022, tenants facing Covid-related hardships navigated a constantly shifting puzzle of rent assistance sources. UniteCT, the state’s $235 million emergency rent assistance program started in response to the pandemic, closed down to new applicants in February. The city of New Haven’s CASTLE rent assistance program, which had long been slow to dispense grants, also closed this year. The state has since opened a new, much smaller eviction prevention fund, which in New Haven is administered through Liberty Community Services and the Community Action Agency of New Haven. 

This ever-changing landscape of rent assistance left some tenants stuck. One Chapel Street tenant who received a non-final stay by stipulation in September wrote in an answer: ​“Last minute, Unite CT encountered an error on their side, said they would reach back out but then the program was either ended or suspended.” Meanwhile, many landlords and tenants found the process of applying for aid to be cumbersome and drawn-out. While landlords were required by law, for a time, to support UniteCT applications, they were not required to support other rent assistance bids. According to legal aid’s Mary Burton, many landlord attorneys were advising their clients not to undergo the long process of applying for programs like CASTLE, which required ​“silly affidavits” and a host of other documents on the part of landlords. It could take months for rent assistance to get approved — and then sometimes even longer for it to actually reach the landlord.

“Your honor this is the only place I have. I did everything I was suppose to do and provided everything you needed,” one Lloyd Street tenant wrote. ​“I’m asking you give the castle program time to get get a check to Mandy management for the 2 months I’m behind and let me say I’m my apartment instead of losing everything I have to go live in a shelter with my girls.” Court records show, in late December, she and her landlord struck an agreement that would allow her family to stay in place through a non-final stay by stipulation.

This article is the first of two reflecting on a year of New Haven evictions in 2022.

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

• Eviction Suit Caps Tenant’s Tough Run
• Investor Skips Hello, Starts Evictions
• Eviction Deal Drops $1 Ruling Appeal
• Judge’s $1 Award Tests Eviction Rule
• Court Case Q: Which​“Nuisances” Merit Eviction?
• ​“Or” Evictions OK’d
• Fair Rent: Dog’ll Cost You $150
• Rent Trumps Repairs In Elliot Street Eviction
• Though Sympathetic, Judge Blocks Eviction
• Family Feuds Fill Eviction Court
• Rent Help Winds Down. What’s Next?
• 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