SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Despite federal and state eviction moratoriums in place to prevent people from losing their homes during the pandemic, advocates say there are loopholes in the system causing many vulnerable people to slip through the cracks and are still being forced out.
Tanya Vera, 49, is an unemployed, disabled single mom of two girls trying to put herself through school right now. A place that she’s called home for more than a year now.
"Even though I look ok on the outside, I am not. I’m not," Vera said.
Tanya Vera is apart of a low-income tax program that allows her to stay there at a subsidized rate, but recently faced claims by the complex that she falsified her documents without disclosing certain household employment information.
“Tonight (Saturday) is my last night in the place that I’m in, and I don’t have a place to go, I’m homeless, and my family is homeless," Vera said.
"For not disclosing my employment in on time, that’s why I’m a liar and a criminal in their eyes,” Stephanie Vera, one of Tanya Vera's daughters, said.
They say they took their case to court and lost.
“I’m standing by the grace of God, that’s all. I don’t know how I stand this morning out of my bed because I had no plan, other than, alright, I guess we put everything in storage," she said.
ABC10 reached out to St. Anton Capital, the company that manages the Bidwell Pointe complex. Lusy Juvet, the director of property management at St. Anton Captial, replied with an emailed statement.
"The residence in question can legally only be occupied by a lower-income household and, unfortunately, the applicant is overqualified," according to the statement. "The property manager has no discretion in this matter, we must comply with the law."
The Sacramento Eviction Defense Network calls for a change in state eviction moratorium rules to stop people like Tayna Vera from falling through the loopholes in what they’re calling a broken system.
"Why are your laws written in such a way that people are still being evicted when they desperately need to remain in their homes?" Johanna Heyer, a member of the Sacramento Eviction Defense Network said.
Despite the mistake that Tanya is accused of making, they say all evictions need to be halted during the pandemic.
“Nobody deserves to be evicted, especially not during this pandemic and especially people who have overlapping levels of vulnerability," Heyer said.
