Eviction Notice : A Less-Forgiving Landlord for Public Housing?

Public housing tenant Elisa Walters never imagined that she would have to live outside the world of subsidized shelter.

After all, the disabled grandmother has been in a low-rent unit on the same city block for 26 years. And during that time, even as crime and urban decay slowly swallowed her south Oxnard neighborhood, she has managed to maintain a quiet life nestled comfortably inside the womb of government housing.

But recently, a series of financial setbacks has pushed Walters, along with her granddaughter and two great-grandsons, to the edge of eviction.

“This is my home,” said Walters, 66, her eyes filling with tears as she told of being robbed and of other hardships she has faced in the past year, which have at times delayed her $267-per-month rent payment.

“I’ve been here for a good part of my life,” she said. “Where else would I go?”

That question, posed by Walters and others, has set off a scramble for answers.

Fearing a crackdown on longtime public housing tenants, legal aid lawyers are asking Oxnard officials to reconsider Walters’ case as well as those of others who are threatened with eviction for failure to pay rent on time.

The lawyers worry that the Oxnard Housing Authority has adopted a new, hard-line policy toward tenants, spurred by a push from federal lawmakers to revamp public housing programs.

“We’re concerned that maybe there’s a new approach to eliminating people from the program,” said Carmen Ramirez, executive director of Channel Counties Legal Services Assn.

The Oxnard-based law firm is contesting two evictions, both of which involve longtime public housing tenants who could wind up homeless if the legal actions hold up in court. In both cases, the tenants offered full rent shortly after final notices to pay had expired. Those offers were rejected by housing officials.

“We’re not talking about people who refuse to pay rent or who are trying to get out of paying rent,” Ramirez added. “We are talking about people who encounter some crisis and who are not able to pay it when it’s due.”

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But Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig said there is no change in policy at the housing authority and no push to rid the program of longtime tenants.

Rather, he said the evictions center on two families who have repeatedly failed to pay rent on time or pay it at all. Walters, for example, has been late eight times since April of last year, Gillig said.

The evictions also come after repeated warnings--including a 14-day notice to pay, followed by a final three-day notice--that failure to pay rent on time would lead to eviction.

Moreover, the legal actions take into account a list of more than 1,000 people waiting to get into any of Oxnard’s 780 public housing units.

“Nobody wants to kick these people out in the street . . . but we have an obligation to others standing in line,” Gillig said. “It isn’t a right, it’s a privilege to move into public housing. To me it’s plain and simple: If you want to stay in public housing, you’ve got to pay the rent.”

The issue comes at a time when public housing programs nationwide are under fire and in line for reform.

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives approved landmark legislation to overhaul Depression-era laws governing federal housing programs for the poor.

The bill shifts a large measure of authority from Washington to local communities. It also includes provisions that could boost rents for public housing tenants and abolish requirements that give priority to the poorest applicants when filling subsidized housing units.

While it is unclear how those provisions might apply locally, housing authorities say it appears that public housing has entered a period of transition.

“The climate is changing for public housing and public housing tenants,” said Carolyn Briggs, executive director of the Ventura County Housing Authority. “If you were a public housing tenant, you would probably have some cause to be concerned.”

Fernando Melgoza, 36, has seen some changes firsthand and is very concerned. After 16 years living in public housing, he, his wife and his eight children are facing eviction for late payment of rent.

Melgoza said he explained to housing officials that he had to buy clothes and shoes for his children, and won permission to skip his April payment of $211 as long as he included it with the rent for May. The rent is based on 30% of the family’s income, a standard formula for public housing tenants.

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When notice was served that his rent was overdue, the Spanish-speaking Melgoza said he didn’t understand it because it was written in English. It was only after going to Channel Counties that he learned his family was being evicted. He said he immediately offered to pay the rent but the offer was rejected.

Oxnard housing officials would not discuss the case, citing pending litigation.

“What they are doing to us is a great injustice,” said Melgoza, adding that he doesn’t have the money to rent another apartment. “Where are we going to live with eight children? We will be out on the street.”

At Channel Counties Legal Services, lawyers are trying to prevent that from happening.

Ramirez and staff attorney Andrew Koenig are meeting with city officials to try to settle the cases before they go to court in the next month or so. Short of that, the attorneys are preparing to convince a judge or jury that their clients deserve another chance.

In the meantime, they have written to Oxnard housing officials and the City Council expressing concern about the handling of cases in which tenants fail to pay rent on time.

“The legal right to evict is one thing, but when the stakes are this high we believe the housing authority has a moral and ethical obligation to work with our clients,” Koenig said. “They are the only bridge between housing and homelessness. What they are supposed to be doing is keeping people off the street, not putting them on it.”

Elisa Walters understands that a court battle is simply a roll of the dice. And she understands the stakes.

Her granddaughter, 20-year-old Elisa Denley, was raised in public housing. So were Denley’s two boys, Daniel, 4, and Phillip, 1. If she loses in court, Walters knows they will lose the only home they have ever known.

“All they have to do is accept my money and I’ll be happy,” she said. “We would be lost if we weren’t here.”