house

today has been quite the day. housing law all day long and all day strong. and it wasn't just poor folks today - got the chance to give greg a little knowledge about raising rents and giving notice, though he already knew what was up.

it was busy, and i heard again from my good friend tashawna nettles. she's being evicted for not paying rent and there's really nothing we can do. if she had come a few days earlier, then maybe we could've gotten the stay of execution, maybe, assuming some nice guy judge decided that extreme hardship would follow. as it is, she got a notice yesterday on her door from the sheriff. the notice kindly notified her that in five days, they would come help her move out if she hadn't already. i suppose that we could've filed ex-parte, but really, what are the chances of prevailing with no appealable issue?

i called tashawna back to drop the hammer, as softly as i could.

"tashawna, i talked with some of the folks here and it doesn't look like the stay of execution is realistic. now that the sheriff's notice is on the door, the best thing to do is get your stuff together and move out. if you don't, they're going to come make you move."

"i'm really sorry tashawna, but there's just not enough time to get the stay. i wish it could be different, but there's really just no way. it's terrible, because you tried paying rent and they refused it, but the courts made their decision weeks ago."

"i know, three children right? how old are they? 6, 4,3? i'm sorry tashawna, i wish more than you know that you could stay."

she's tough like a nail though. or maybe it's that she's just been hardended by life in south central, life as a poor person.

"it's ok. we'll go to a shelter. i'll find a place for my kids and me, long as it ain't in skid row. the kids get scared there. but there are other places around. maybe we'll get into one of those transitional places."

"or yeah, i'll ask my mother, maybe we can stay there for a bit. i already started packing my stuff, figured there wasn't much of a chance anyway. it's ok. we'll be ok."

will it really be ok? if not in this life, perhaps the next.