Samayah Winston leaves with extra pillows and blankets to sleep in her car as she walks through a garage unit on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, in Houston. While helping an out-of-state friend, Winston received a message from his neighbor who was looking at his house. The lock on his apartment had been changed. He has a lease and was up to date with his payments. Later, he discovered his belongings in a dumpster. He is now homeless and is suing the real estate company.
Samayah Winston looks at photos of her apartment after it emptied on Friday, August 26, 2022 in Houston.
Samayah Winston takes a pillow and sheets from her garage unit on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, in Houston.
Samayah Winston took out as many documents as she could from the dumpster after her landlord evicted her, and added a sheet that appeared up to date with her bills and lease.
A piece of paper that Samayah Winston retrieved from the dumpster shows that she is up to date on her bills and lease.
Samayah Winston talks about her stage after taking the rest of her belongings to a garage on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, in Houston.
Samayah Winston visiting a pregnant friend in Florida when she won a text message from the neighbor guarding her apartment. It was an image of Winston’s front door: the lock on his keyboard had been replaced with a bolt.
No one had warned him or given him the key. Later, she threw her belongings into a garbage dump.
The 32-year-old had paid her rent, but it made no difference. Over the next few days, she found herself mired in a Kafkaesque world in which her lease, rent receipts, and absence of eviction procedures were not enough to deter a series of developing movements that left her homeless and living in her car.
But the law enforcement agencies he called expressed confusion about the jurisdiction of his situation. In the end, no one came to their aid in a case that, according to legal experts, flagrantly violated the law and shows how vulnerable tenants are to the moves landlords can carry out. of patio doors.
Winston is just one of many tenants who have recently become homeless after being locked out of their home. While illegal lockouts are rarely reported and difficult to track, court filings through tenants seeking to regain access to their apartments have particularly increased in recent years.
The control of Winston’s building, Adorable Pointe Apartments, asked questions of his attorney, Keval Patel. Neither Patel nor the building, Grace Church International pastors Alice and Ayo Ajim, responded to requests for comment.
Winston felt positive when he moved to Adorable Pointe, west of 610 Circuit near the Houston flea market. It was the first apartment she rented herself after years of living with her family, in a student apartment or with friends. And the position was not expensive.
The Philadelphia local was taking virtual categories at Western Pennsylvania University while living out of state and staying as a replacement teacher. I was in doctoral school for a judicial mediator. He also had plans for a secondary activity to help other people focus on their breathing. as a form of meditation.
The construction he had moved to belonged to a couple of pastors with churches in Houston and the Bronx in New York City. Grace International Church’s online page announces plans to open a church in Nigeria and boasts of having “ministerial assets valued at over $15 million today. “and a chain of independent emergency rooms in the Houston area, Grace ER. In July, Texas Health and Human Services announced that it had fined Grace ER for allegations of rape.
She didn’t know the history of the position, that Adorable Pointe had asked for evictions 68 times between 2009 and 2018, according to court records. In recent years, legal procedures had diminished for the building. But that didn’t necessarily mean it hadn’t been evicted.
During the year and a part that lived in the building, Winston saw the tenants’ belongings emptied from their apartments into the dumpster. It happened to her after she returned from vacation, she was stunned. I had made the full payment for June, July and August. She guessed that the police would help her.
Winston returned to his apartment on August 15; there was no lock at all. There was no way to protect his unit. Then an employee arrived and removed the door from its hinges. He briefly went to his car and returned to locate the apartment provided with a door. with another new padlock.
That night she slept in her car, feeling lonely and exposed.
She called the police several times in the following days, but the calls were a hot potato game, in which each and every branch of the city and county expressed sympathy for her scenario but directed her to someone else.
When Winston returned to his apartment the next morning to fix things, he entered an impressive scene: the men were carrying their belongings in a dumpster, where neighbors had piled up to look. His TV was already covered in garbage. He took out his coats, hangers. and bedding from his closet, which the men had not yet reached, and they put them in their car. He lost almost everything: electronics, furniture, kitchen utensils, strength equipment and more.
No officers entered the construction to investigate.
The law enforcement agencies she touched said they were not the right organization to touch her and directed her elsewhere. His explanations to the Houston Chronicle were the same.
“Evictions and lockout cases go to the workplace and sheriff’s sheriff,” said Shay Awosiyan, chief of public data for the Houston Police Department.
The Harris County sheriff’s office said it had no jurisdiction. “We didn’t close,” a spokesman said. These are all gendarmes. “
And Harris County Police Precinct five said that in a civil dispute, “the only way to get involved in eviction is if a trial warns us to worry. “Once a justice of the peace has ruled in favor of the landlord in an eviction case, the sentence can order a gendarme to officially evict the tenant and remove his belongings from the dwelling. But in this case, the case hadn’t even begun.
Spokesman Jeff McShan said someone on The Winston stage deserves to call the police, who can send the nearest unit if it’s an emergency.
“A smart police branch would have emerged,” said Fred Fuchs, an Austin-based tenant attorney. “If they had decided that there was no eviction, they would have said, ‘You have to return the internal assets and touch your justice of the peace and your lawyer and do it properly.
Reflecting on those early days, Winston said his confidence in the formula had taken a hit: “That total day made me feel so unimportant,” he said. “I feel like if I was a white girl, at least the police would have come. . “
After sleeping two days in his car, Winston said he called the police and an officer advised him to ask a justice of the peace to repair his in the apartment.
The process, known as filing a back-to-school order, is rare: The form is rarely indexed very evenly on the Harris County Justice of the Peace website. However, a growing number of tenants have begun filing orders, according to an investigation. of court documents provided through Houston-based knowledge firm January Advisors.
At the nearest courthouse, he met with an attorney from the nonprofit legal aid organization Lone Star, who moved in to register a readmission application at the location. But a hearing for Winston may be scheduled before Judge Israel Garcia for 4 days.
Meanwhile, Winston kept calling the shelters he had found online, but refused again and again. The Coalition for the Homeless declined to comment on the case.
Since destroying his home, Winston has developed methods to move forward. He was given a 24-hour gym membership so he could shower. The mailroom had also been changed. He started a GoFundMe. And you’ll pay for a garage unit where he hides the few things he can save from the dumpster.
On Friday, he stopped by the warehouse to take inventory of what he had left. He was also looking for how to deal with the experience. He had given food and clothing to the homeless. She did so because she believed in a higher force that would help her in turn. But for her, there had been no help.
“Why did you do this to me?” he asked loudly.
He took a black plastic bag with a red checkered wool blanket and added a pillow. He would take the two of them with their backs to the car to rest.
With Lone Star Legal Aid, he said, he plans to file a complaint.
“Not for financial reasons,” he said. By responsibility. I need to admit that they were wrong, like Array” I shouldn’t have done this. “You can’t do that. “
rebecca. schuetz@chron. com
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