Around 50 Latino families will have to give up their homes in Plainfield, New Jersey because they owe, in some cases, up to 11 months in back rent.
The eviction order was issued by the Union County court last Tuesday and the families must move out within 10 days, or else the Sherriff's office will remove them from their homes.
The situation for Bersy Cortés, 26-year old woman from Guatemala with four children between the ages of 6 months to 8 years, is critical. Although she admits to not having paid rent in 10 months, she insists she had no choice.
"My husband left me. I owe $11,000 in rent, and I barely have enough to eat," she said.
Cortés lives in a housing complex called Green Brook Village, on East Front Street, a property owned by the real estate company Connolly Properties, which was recently ordered by the court to repair 8 of its 29 housing complexes in Plainfield.
Rosalía Sánchez, a 38-year old from Mexico, lives in Liberty Arms, on 7th Street. She too will also have to leave her home because she has not paid her rent in 11 months.
"Work has been very bad. That is why I have not been able to pull together the almost $10,000 to bring my rent up to date," she says in an anguished tone. Although the court ordered her eviction, she is hoping to receive an extension, which was requested last Thursday.
Arturo Bloomfield, a resident of the same building, said that he has refused to pay rent for the past two months because the owners have not reimbursed him for the money he spent paying a company to fumigate. "This place is infested with bedbugs, rats, and more rodents than you can imagine. What is sad is that I have been to the office to complain several times and they told me, shamelessly, that all they care about is that I pay the rent."
Carmen Salavarrieta, founder of Angels in Action [a nonprofit organization to help the vulnerable and 'voiceless"], said that the situation is "critical. We are talking about mostly low-income families with children. And finding an apartment with cheap rent is not easy."
Regarding the poor state of some of the homes, Andrew Baron, a municipal judge in Plainfield, fined David Connolly, president of the real estate company, to pay $5,700 after finding him guilty of failing to repair 17 violations found on his properties.
