Photo: (Jacqueline García / Real America News) / Impremedia
On Monday morning Alma Quiñonez said that she had just finished get up when the sheriff arrived at his house around 8 in the morning. Scared, she opened the door and was received with an immediate eviction order.
“There were two -agents- and one told me that he had a few minutes to get off the property, ”said Quiñonez, who is a tenant in a garage converted into an apartment in the Wilmington area, south of Los Angeles. “My son was taking his classes at Zoom and we just grabbed what we could and got out.”
The tenant, who suffers from fibromyalgia , carpal tunnel and apnea (temporary lack of breathing), said that when he practically fled his home, he forgot his machine that he uses to sleep, as well as several of his belongings.
“At night we stayed with a lady, but I slept sitting down because I can’t sleep without the machine, ”Quiñonez said. “But today we are on the street, they left us homeless.”
The problem in Quiñonez’s home has been going on for more than a year . She said that her tenant wants to evict her from the property to rent it more expensively.
Although Quiñonez applied for state rental assistance to tenants affected by covid – 19 and thus, avoid eviction, this did not prevent her from being removed with a temporary restraining order, which was filed in the Governor George Deukmejian court of Long Beach.
This explains that Quiñonez does not live in that property and is installed as an intruder taking advantage of the covid pandemic – 19. Quiñonez denies this, assuring that she paid $ 700 per month until last year when they stopped taking their payments.
The tenant could not help tears thinking where she is going to go with her son from 10 years , who instead of studying on Tuesday morning, arrived with his mother and a group of tenants organized to protest the acts that the court is approving.
“This court is granting expedited evictions under that pretext “Said Quiñonez, who despite living in Wilmington, the case is filed in Long Beach. “I demand that this court and all employees of the Los Angeles County court system stop granting these evictions and restraining orders under false witness.”
Activists and members of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) They said the restraining order, issued by a judge, is unfair, as evictions for non-payment of rent are currently illegal under the city’s current eviction moratorium.
They assured that now the owners are using novel tactics such as restraining orders to evade the eviction moratorium.
In a statement, Elena Popp, executive director of Eviction Defense Network , said Quiñonez is representative of several cases of homeowners who tried to use the same tactics to circumvent the eviction moratorium, which the Los Angeles City Council extended after state protections ended in September.
“We have seen a marked increase in landlords who use the restraining order process to avoid having to go through eviction court, ”Popp explained. “In the last few weeks we have seen three cases in which a judge violated a tenant’s due process rights by evicting him without any opportunity to defend himself.”
Anti-bullying ordinance does not work
The City of Los Angeles has an anti-harassment ordinance that specifies that landlords cannot harass tenants by refusing to accept paying rent, failing to make necessary repairs to the apartments, making threats of physical harm to the tenant, asking about immigration status or taking any other retaliation against them, among other measures.
Emma Aranza, activist with ACCE, said that This harassment continues to be faced by many tenants and it is only getting worse, despite the existence of the anti-harassment ordinance.
“We are tired of this , we are going to fight against eviction, “said Aranza.
Quiñonez asserted that thanks to the immediate work of the court to approve, sign and send the restraining order, she had to leave without her breathing machine and is in the street.
“You guys took me out. Did you wonder where I plugged in my machine last night? They are ashamed. ”
Harassed tenants can call the ACCE hotline at 1 – 888 – 964 – 8086.