If your building, house or complex has been put into foreclosure, it’s likely you will be pressured to move. If you are living with a disability, a forced move is particularly hard. You may feel that you can’t fight it. If you have a housing voucher from HUD, you may feel that any fight would put your voucher at risk. But, why should you suffer for the bad decisions of others?Â
If you, like our guest Gloria Alee, want to make it tough for people to force you out of your home, Gloria has put together this list for you.
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Tenants Together www.tenantstogether.org/995 Market St#1202/SF 94103 (415) 495-8100  HERA/Housing and Economics Rights Advocates www.heraca.org/P.O. Box 29435/Oakland 94604 (510) 271-8443  DREDF/Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund www.dredf.org/3075 Adeline Street, Suite 210/Berkeley 94703 (510) 644-2555  ACLU/American Civil Liberties Union www.aclu.org  NAMI/National Alliance for the Mentally Ill www.nami.org  BALA/BayAreaLegalAid/David Levin: Housing Attorney Alameda County – (510) 250-5270 Contra Costa County West – (510) 250-5270 Contra Costa County East – (925) 219-3325 Marin County – (415) 354-6360 Napa County – (707) 320-6348 San Francisco – (415) 354-6360 San Mateo County – (650) 472-2666 Santa Clara County – (408) 850-7066 Toll-Free – (800) 551-5554   Tenants and Landlords Rights and Responsibilities Handbook available online and/or by mail and some local and county agencies Â
If you are being harassed or threatened by people calling your home telling you they are there to sell the property; or help you relocate call the police. Seriously. No one should be contacting you with unsolicited calls or wanting to discuss your tenancy with you. Your lease is between you, the owner, and the administrators of your housing subsidy voucher.
Each county has an Adult Protective Services unit–report your concerns to them; many people have county-based caseworkers/social workers involved in helping them manage their affairs/living situations. Report to them as soon as these calls and contacts begin. You can also report to your local District Attorney’s Consumer Protection and Complaint division. They are authorized to investigate scams, fraud, and anything else they believe is worthy of their concern or in the public interest. Also report to your doctor the impact of these threats to your housing as it can/does take a toll on your health. Gloria’s doctor wrote a letter stating that being forced to move before her recovery was complete would be detrimental to her health. Documenting the impact and effects upon your health is also important in the event that you decide to file a liability claim.
Advocacy Groups: If you are fortunate enough to find a support group to help you/work with you through the process, that is fabulous. Gloria Alee worked to make the most of what has been available to her: emailing all in her address book about what she was facing; going before the local Board of Supervisors; reporting to Community Mental Health; reporting to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness); starting a Facebook campaign to tell Fannie Mae they should rescind the Eviction order she received in 2010 and to rescind the most recent (2nd one!) Unlawful Detainer filed in October and scheduled for hearing in March 2012.
Gloria Alee’s e-mail is seemeshin@yahoo.com
