14 families evicted 3 days before Christmas

BELLE GLADE, Fla. — Florina Louis knows the scene all too well: bags of crumpled clothing, televisions balanced on shoulders and mattresses dragged down flights stairs with less than a day’s notice.

The 19-year-old went to the pink and blue apartment buildings on Thursday to help her godchild’s mother move out of a building that the city deemed dangerous. The same thing happened to her and her family just down the road a week earlier.

She said Christmas is not going to be as festive for her family or the dozens displaced from the building.

“This year isn’t about Christmas. It’s about finding a place to stay,” Louis said.

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Fourteen families, about 40 people, were told at 8 a.m. Thursday that they had until 6 p.m. to get their belongings out of their apartments and find somewhere new to live, just three days before Christmas.

Along the pink walls of the dilapidated buildings, signs posted by the Belle Glade building inspector read: “Dangerous Building.” Clean, safe housing has long been a problem in the city, part of the poorest region of Palm Beach County.

Residents said their landlord gave them no warning. Some had just paid their rent. Others were trying to figure out where they would live. Many were trying to figure out what they could take with them. Garbage bags, pots and pans and suitcases lined the sidewalk waiting to be picked up by friends of the displaced residents or a van provided by the city to move them to their temporary locations.

Belle Glade Mayor Steve Wilson said the city and the county are working to help move families to either a motel in South Bay — where a business owner has offered to house them — or to relatives’ homes. He said it’s a sad situation, but he is optimistic because of the outreach from the community.

“It’s unfortunate that it is happening now with the holiday,” Wilson said.

Louis said many of the residents in the building and her former home were able to just make the $350 to $500 rent, but many places in the area now cost up to $700. Louis, who acted as a Creole interpreter for many of the residents when they spoke with city officials, said the people who live in the buildings don’t have much money because they work in the fields and send half of their income back home to Haiti.

“Yes, I’ve seen this happen before,” she said of the short notice. “But it’s happening to us, so it’s very different.”

Derrick Kirksey, 31, was awakened at 8 a.m. by sheriff’s deputies telling him that he had to vacate the building. Kirksey, who has lived in the building for a few months, was able to get most of his belongings out Friday and helped his neighbors remove theirs.

“The landlord knew there was a 90-day notice and did nothing (to warn residents),” Kirksey said. “It’s heart-wrenching.”

Property records indicate that the building is owned by CP Investments LLC, a company with a Belle Glade mailing address. A spokesman for the owner could not be reached Thursday for comment.

County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said she is trying to get to the bottom of how things got to this last-minute shuffle, but for now the most important thing is to help people get out. Farmers, firefighters and other business owners in the area have offered to feed the families as things get sorted out, she said.

McKinlay said it’s important to note that the residents were not evicted. Instead, the building was deemed dangerous because the owner had not been taking care of the building, she said.

“Many of these apartments did not have running water,” she said from inside the three-story building.

Only half of the building had working electricity, according to residents. At night, extension cords could be seen running from one side to the other so the renters could run fans and turn on lights.

On top of the frustration from the short notice and the timing of the holidays, some renters had just paid rent and now have little to nothing left.

Jean Oles works in the fields shoveling and said he’s lived in the building for four years. He paid his rent last week and wants his money back. He said he doesn’t know how the landlord can get away with doing that.

“This is wrong,” he said.

Cox Media Group