“My family is facing so much uncertainty and fear of being evicted due to both of my parents losing their jobs. Our landlord is very abusive and never cares for fixing the neighborhood issues. He has continuously raised rent without regard to any of our neighbors or our family. I tried to get out of my lease to be able to support my parents financially but the apartment complex did not allow me to do that. They have never tried to reach out for support and are still expecting all tenants to continue to pay rent in full and charging late fees for those who don’t turn it in by the 5th.” R, Chapel Hill, Latinx Woman
“We are really worried about the rent. If the virus surges or continues, paying the rent will become a problem, because my husband’s hours have been cut. I was working as a house cleaner before the virus but now I have no work. The income in our house is much less. I want those from the county to know that if there are evictions it would be terrible because where would we go? Where would we live? We are willing to work, but for many people there is no work. And we don’t get unemployment benefits or stimulus checks if we don’t have a social security number.” Undocumented individual, Chapel Hill
“My landlord offered being able to work with me and that I could pay what I could for rent, however I was told that I would have to pay them back within 6 months which at this time seems impossible.” M, Hillsborough, Single Mother
"My partner and I were facing issues with our past landlord after moving out in terms of rent payments which we are unable to meet due to COVID-19. My partner and I both identify as transgender and lost work due to the virus. My partner works for a grocery store and had to reduce their hours to protect me as best they could, as I am immune compromised. I have temporarily lost my job due to COVID and do not have benefits to protect me. We are struggling to get federal benefits to meet our mortgage payments, utilities ( at our current home and the apartment we moved out of) and for groceries. Jamie Paulen from Tenant Rights, Inc. helped us work through a plan with our old apartment and deal with a property management company that was not being honest or forthright in regards to our rights at this time. Having someone help us through legal issues and our protections under the CARE Act meant the world to us. We have a lot of friends in the LGBTQIA community who are dealing with similar and worse situations." T, Carrboro, LGTBQIA individual.
"I am a disabled transgender bisexual person. The types of work I can do are very limited because of health problems, and I am often kept away from much of what I CAN do because I cannot afford to change my name. Finding and keeping housing is difficult because of the same reason. I have been accused of identity theft at job and apartment interviews, and I am currently barely affording to survive because of my parents. They have threatened to cut me off over issues of self expression and identity, and If i cannot find a safe job in time, I will be homeless, where both the current public health crisis and my underlying health problems will put me in danger. I am applying for disability but the process takes time and I have no protections until then.”
My husband and I rented an apartment and chapel Hill with a woman he met while working. When we moved in she was all gung-ho about us working on her house and taking it off the rent. Well that was not what happened; she wanted the money in advance and then would take off for the rent. Seeing the covid-19 so we didn't have the money she then sent us a text and told us we had to leave the house. She had left for her beach house on Emerald Isle and her daughter was coming and harassing me daily. She also had Sheriff Blackwood call me and tell me that he would pay to put my stuff in storage on April 15th just as soon as I got out of the house; otherwise they would come and arrest me for trespassing since we only had an oral lease not a written lease. Then my friend Debbie gave me the number to the housing authority who hooked me up with a lawyer Jamie Paulen from Tenant Rights, Inc. and she helped us immensely. She told us that they could not evict us even though they were trying to and you were not allowed to evict people during this pandemic. The landlord’s daughter came one too many times and was yelling in my face that we had to leave and she was threatening to call the police. When I called the lawyer the woman ran out of the house and never came back because the lawyer called the police.” B, Chapel Hill
"I'm a queer Trans woman, my restaurant was one of the 1st to close down, which I'm grateful for, but I've been unable to get unemployment, says its delayed to due "layoff/lack of work", and its been a nightmare using that website, full of crashes and bugs, the phone lines so bogged down I don't even get the displeasure of being on hold for hours, I'm just immediately disconnected due to sheer call volume and I'm still waiting in that stimulus check I've started a rent strike in my neighborhood, but management refuses to meet with us, and yesterday they started asking for rent, saying the eviction moratorium is almost up."
“There are 7 of us in this building. 1 is retired. 1 has just started working again. The rest of us are unemployed and can't access unemployment because the system is so backlogged and/or because we don't qualify (were recently a student, are an artist, etc.) We have varying levels of savings and therefore varying levels of desperation and panic. Some of us have always been pretty paycheck to paycheck. I have always hustled and worked random jobs and gigs on top of my main job, even with 2 master's degrees. I was laid off in March because my job focused on transgender rights and federal grants are deprioritizing trans issues under Trump, so our grantor abruptly stopped funding me. This was just before the pandemic. I wasn't too stressed because I had months of gigs scheduled that I could live on frugally, but when the pandemic hit, it was like everything was cancelled overnight. I immediately filed for unemployment but because I'd had so many employers, the system doesn't know what to do with me and keeps rejecting my application. I call everyday. One day, about a week ago I called 250 times. That day, I reached 3 humans, but all of them told me they couldn't help me and transferred me, and the calls were immediately disconnected when they transferred. My understanding is that the state has hired a lot of people who don't have a lot of power or knowledge to relieve the backlog, but it didn't actually help, because these very kind but powerless people just say they can't help you and hang up. Right now, I have one more month of savings, maybe two if I can really, really stretch things. So I can pay rent for June but I don't know about July. I definitely don't have enough for August. I have applied for jobs and continue to do so, in addition to calling unemployment dozens of times everyday, so I'm hoping something comes through before I run out of money. It is scary to see my already very humble savings account dwindling and not know what will happen when it gets to 0. I'm just hoping something gives in the next month or so. I feel privileged because friends and family have offered to help if it comes to that, but I know they are struggling too, so I'd rather it not come to that.” A, Carrboro, LGTBQIA individual
“We are really worried about the rent. If the virus surges or continues, paying the rent will become a problem, because my husband’s hours have been cut. I was working as a house cleaner before the virus but now I have no work. The income in our house is much less. I want those from the county to know that if there are evictions it would be terrible because where would we go? Where would we live? We are willing to work, but for many people there is no work. And we don’t get unemployment benefits or stimulus checks if we don’t have a social security number.” Undocumented individual, Chapel Hill
“My landlord offered being able to work with me and that I could pay what I could for rent, however I was told that I would have to pay them back within 6 months which at this time seems impossible.” M, Hillsborough, Single Mother
"My partner and I were facing issues with our past landlord after moving out in terms of rent payments which we are unable to meet due to COVID-19. My partner and I both identify as transgender and lost work due to the virus. My partner works for a grocery store and had to reduce their hours to protect me as best they could, as I am immune compromised. I have temporarily lost my job due to COVID and do not have benefits to protect me. We are struggling to get federal benefits to meet our mortgage payments, utilities ( at our current home and the apartment we moved out of) and for groceries. Jamie Paulen from Tenant Rights, Inc. helped us work through a plan with our old apartment and deal with a property management company that was not being honest or forthright in regards to our rights at this time. Having someone help us through legal issues and our protections under the CARE Act meant the world to us. We have a lot of friends in the LGBTQIA community who are dealing with similar and worse situations." T, Carrboro, LGTBQIA individual.
"I am a disabled transgender bisexual person. The types of work I can do are very limited because of health problems, and I am often kept away from much of what I CAN do because I cannot afford to change my name. Finding and keeping housing is difficult because of the same reason. I have been accused of identity theft at job and apartment interviews, and I am currently barely affording to survive because of my parents. They have threatened to cut me off over issues of self expression and identity, and If i cannot find a safe job in time, I will be homeless, where both the current public health crisis and my underlying health problems will put me in danger. I am applying for disability but the process takes time and I have no protections until then.”
My husband and I rented an apartment and chapel Hill with a woman he met while working. When we moved in she was all gung-ho about us working on her house and taking it off the rent. Well that was not what happened; she wanted the money in advance and then would take off for the rent. Seeing the covid-19 so we didn't have the money she then sent us a text and told us we had to leave the house. She had left for her beach house on Emerald Isle and her daughter was coming and harassing me daily. She also had Sheriff Blackwood call me and tell me that he would pay to put my stuff in storage on April 15th just as soon as I got out of the house; otherwise they would come and arrest me for trespassing since we only had an oral lease not a written lease. Then my friend Debbie gave me the number to the housing authority who hooked me up with a lawyer Jamie Paulen from Tenant Rights, Inc. and she helped us immensely. She told us that they could not evict us even though they were trying to and you were not allowed to evict people during this pandemic. The landlord’s daughter came one too many times and was yelling in my face that we had to leave and she was threatening to call the police. When I called the lawyer the woman ran out of the house and never came back because the lawyer called the police.” B, Chapel Hill
"I'm a queer Trans woman, my restaurant was one of the 1st to close down, which I'm grateful for, but I've been unable to get unemployment, says its delayed to due "layoff/lack of work", and its been a nightmare using that website, full of crashes and bugs, the phone lines so bogged down I don't even get the displeasure of being on hold for hours, I'm just immediately disconnected due to sheer call volume and I'm still waiting in that stimulus check I've started a rent strike in my neighborhood, but management refuses to meet with us, and yesterday they started asking for rent, saying the eviction moratorium is almost up."
“There are 7 of us in this building. 1 is retired. 1 has just started working again. The rest of us are unemployed and can't access unemployment because the system is so backlogged and/or because we don't qualify (were recently a student, are an artist, etc.) We have varying levels of savings and therefore varying levels of desperation and panic. Some of us have always been pretty paycheck to paycheck. I have always hustled and worked random jobs and gigs on top of my main job, even with 2 master's degrees. I was laid off in March because my job focused on transgender rights and federal grants are deprioritizing trans issues under Trump, so our grantor abruptly stopped funding me. This was just before the pandemic. I wasn't too stressed because I had months of gigs scheduled that I could live on frugally, but when the pandemic hit, it was like everything was cancelled overnight. I immediately filed for unemployment but because I'd had so many employers, the system doesn't know what to do with me and keeps rejecting my application. I call everyday. One day, about a week ago I called 250 times. That day, I reached 3 humans, but all of them told me they couldn't help me and transferred me, and the calls were immediately disconnected when they transferred. My understanding is that the state has hired a lot of people who don't have a lot of power or knowledge to relieve the backlog, but it didn't actually help, because these very kind but powerless people just say they can't help you and hang up. Right now, I have one more month of savings, maybe two if I can really, really stretch things. So I can pay rent for June but I don't know about July. I definitely don't have enough for August. I have applied for jobs and continue to do so, in addition to calling unemployment dozens of times everyday, so I'm hoping something comes through before I run out of money. It is scary to see my already very humble savings account dwindling and not know what will happen when it gets to 0. I'm just hoping something gives in the next month or so. I feel privileged because friends and family have offered to help if it comes to that, but I know they are struggling too, so I'd rather it not come to that.” A, Carrboro, LGTBQIA individual
