FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - It was a week before Christmas when Crystal Roberts returned to her Southward Village apartment and found she was homeless.
She was locked out, all of her possessions removed and hauled away -where, she did not know.
Intellectually disabled with chronic bronchitis, the mother of one missed a rent payment because the person in charge of her disability check spent the money.
For that, Roberts said, the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers evicted her, leaving her on the streets without a wallet, phone or change of clothes.
Residents of the public housing complex say she is not alone: The housing authority, which manages Southward Village, is evicting unprecedented numbers of people.
“They are going after everybody because they want to tear this place down,” said Theresa Ewan, who was served a 30-day eviction notice after a year at Southward Village. Before that she and her veteran boyfriend were homeless, living in a van.
Disabled by spinal fluid on the brain that causes migraines and eventual blindness, Ewan had missed one appointment to renew her lease because she was bedridden, she said, and was late to the second.
Such is the stress of eviction that Ewan’s next door neighbor, a disabled senior who picked up trash around the complex to help make his rent, suffered a massive stroke a few days after receiving his notice, she said.
“I’m terrified. I have nowhere to go,” she said. “I think they don’t want to pay out all that money for us to go someplace else.”
Ewan was referring to the fact that tenants of public housing must be re-housed if their building is torn down. While the federal government can give them vouchers to relocate elsewhere, the local housing agency must pay their moving costs.
Since Marcia Davis took the reins in January, evictions have spiked sharply over 2018’s numbers across all housing authority properties, public records show.
“The appearance of an increase can be attributed to lease enforcement actions …, ” Davis said. “We comply with all federal and state laws as well as compliance with our policies.”
The director denied her agency would do anything such as what Roberts reported about her eviction.
Still, fear and mistrust hang in the air at this public housing site - the city’s oldest -where Davis embarked on a transformation plan four months ago.
Her agency’s aim is not only to replace the aging, mauve-colored duplexes with mixed income housing, but to attract private investors to the surrounding neighborhood.
The redevelopment plan includes replacing Southward’s subsidized units, adding other affordable housing, and phasing in affordable options for seniors.
Davis reassured, “All of the residents living onsite must be offered comparable housing of their choice.”
But comparable to what?
At the intersection of Edison Avenue and Ford Street, the complex offers units of up to four- and five- bedrooms for large families, and plenty of yard space for the kids.
The new development is likely to be much denser with smaller units to accommodate a massive influx of childless singles and couples, according to a presentation given by the agency’s planning consultant, Urban Design Group.
Southward Village residents who attended Davis’ planning meetings say they were told not all of them will be invited to return when it’s redeveloped.
Their City Council representative, Terolyn Watson, participated in the meetings, but didn’t respond to a News-Press email about the residents’ concerns.
“They’re going to rehouse everyone and bring certain people back who ‘fit’ their requirements,” said Shereane Siriaque, who recently received notice of a lease violation; a potential first step on the road to a public housing eviction.
“Credit, background, criminal history - they’re checking everything like they did when we first moved in. If you have felonies or anything like that, you can’t return,” Siriaque said.
The single mother of four waited five years for public housing; years that included time in an Immokalee homeless shelter. ‘An unidentified man’ accused her of having visitors staying with her longer than allowed, Southward Village management told her.
“So before moving us, they’re evicting us,” she said.
‘Lessons in history’
If that were the case, it would not be the first time a housing authority increased evictions in buildings it planned to redevelop.
In Chicago, public housing evictions were highest in buildings that were being renewed with federal funds, a 2011 news investigation found.
And in Fort Myers, some 1,200 residents were promised replacement housing when Michigan Court came down in 2005. Many were not included in the new development dubbed Renaissance Preserve, Anthony Thomas, a longtime community activist, observed.
“They were given vouchers and moved to Lehigh instead,” Thomas said.
Davis was in charge of that relocation plan, according to her resume.
“Getting rid of public housing and replacing it with a voucher is not a one-for-one replacement by any means,” said Michelle Trunkett, a Florida Rural Legal Services attorney who represents low-income clients.
“The supply of low and very low-income housing in Fort Myers is incredibly limited. Now we are taking down what little is left and replacing it with multi-income housing,” Trunkett said.
‘Rebuilding public housing with private money’
Davis is optimistic, however, that a new federal program, Rental Assistance Demonstration, will help her agency rebuild its public housing supply by allowing her to finance it the same way market rate housing is financed: with bank loans.
According to administrator Tom Lewis of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the program has strict rules to make sure residents who want to remain or return to the property actually can.
“We have a number of procedures in place to identify any housing authorities that are trying to dodge their obligations,” Lewis said. “These procedures include … monitoring the occupancy/vacancy status of participating properties to see if turnover and vacancies are starting to spike … .”
Davis’ agency has not yet decided it will tap the program to rebuild Southward Village, she said.
Meanwhile, with redevelopment still years away, evictions at Southward Village could leave many fewer people to relocate when, and if, the time comes. Already the streets have an air of vacancy. The blank windows of emptied buildings stare back at passers-by.
Those evicted not only lose their rent subsidy, such as Atoria Jente Young, a former tenant put out for violating the pet policy; they will also have the stain of eviction on their background checks when they try to apply for housing elsewhere. Young paid the required pet fee, she said, but the housing authority said otherwise.
“A lot of people tell me they were supposed to give me time to correct my actions, to pay again or remove the dog,” said the young mother who is five months pregnant and cares for a disabled daughter full-time.
Now her mother or another relative must sign a lease for her, she said.
Tabitha Inniss and her mother, Beanna Simmons, worry they will soon face her problem. Although they faithfully paid their pet fee and rent, Simmons didn’t turn in all of the paperwork required to re-qualify for her Southward Village apartment.
Served with an eviction notice, the family dinner conversations revolve around who they can stay with, Innis said.
With a cold wind blowing outside, Siriaque on Wednesday night huddled in the darkness of her living room where the lights have not worked since she moved in two years ago.
“I don’t even like having company over,” she said, worrying over the non-compliance notice she had received.
“I don’t want to be homeless again.”
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