SAN ANTONIO — The CDC’s eviction moratorium in light of the coronavirus pandemic ends March 31st, prompting many to fear whether they’ll have a place to call home next month.
It was early in the pandemic when Christopher Cureton-Emanuel found himself spiraling into financial chaos.
“I lost my job maybe going into two months into it. I went from 40 hours to 10 hours and the cut down to 5 and then let go,” Christopher said.
Confused and jobless, Christopher feared getting evicted, even with a federal ban on evictions in place. He noted he got the runaround from the landlord in getting rental assistance through city and state programs.
“I was either getting pushback on documents that needed to be put in. There was a time when an application was never submitted. It was a paper application,” Christopher said.
One year later and Christopher still hasn’t received rental assistance. As of four days ago, Christopher said he was evicted.
“I really don’t have a place of my own anymore, which is going to be hard,” Christopher said.
San Antonio’s Emergency Housing Assistance (EHAP) and Right to Counsel programs are the city’s main services, which have helped tens of thousands of families across the city.
Veronica Soto, director of Neighborhood and Housing Services Dept., noted some landlords aren’t as educated about the options available to tenants, which in turn poses a problem. But there are efforts are underway to fix this.
“When we hear of a complex where there might be issues with the landlord not being as well educated, that’s where we focus a lot of our training,” Soto said.
She stressed there’s still hope for those who feel lost and helpless.
“If they’re behind on rent because their hours were cut, they just haven’t had the income, they had expenses because someone in their family got sick, there’s still help,” Soto said.
As for Christopher, he’s found a new place to live and a new job. But he’s skeptical whether he’ll be successful in receiving rental assistance.
“Right now, I’m living in a pretty much New York-sized apartment for $500 right now and I’m going to be struggling to pay that,” he said.
The City of San Antonio’s Emergency Housing Assistance Program (EHAP) has provided more than $76 million in relief to over 30,000 families.
Assistance is afforded to individuals and families based on several qualifications for a period of 6-9 months.
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