We have been evicted for 19 days in the pandemic ... so, we've been living homeless. Are your socks wet? I don't know. I just put it
some type of way where I I just actually be enough comfortable where I feel like I'm in
the bed or something. When I wake up in the morning,
I'm sitting in the front seat of my car, realization sets in. OK, we've been out here all night long. It don't have to be like that. We tried our best to do our part, and the landlord didn’t want
to compromise with us. John and Margaret Eaddy have
been living out of their car since they were evicted from
their home on September 29. They said they were unable to make rent after John’s hours were reduced
at his trucking job. We was comfortable,
then here come Mr. Pandemic. Everything just went from comfortable to
uncomfortable, real fast. This is me, Margaret Eaddy, and my husband, John, we're being evicted. We just needed a little bit more time in August and we could have gave her her money. We don't like right now have nowhere to live. We're going to be out homeless. So, I did everything that
I was supposed to do. I tried to go through the declaration, the CDC moratorium. And she won. So this is where we ended up at. - Your destination is on the right. After being homeless for weeks, Margaret is urgently looking for a new home. It's gotta be this one right here, 26. She said go by, take a look at it, and then call back and they’ll ask me
some prequalifying questions about it. But it definitely looks all right to me, because it’s better than where
we are now in the car. - So, did you get a chance to
drive by and take a look at it? Yeah, I'm sitting in front of the
home right now as we speak. - OK. And what's your name? Margaret. - OK, Margaret. And how soon are
you looking to move into a house? Um, as soon as possible. Right now. - Are you on a lease where
you're living at right now? No, as a matter of fact, we're not. We're actually homeless. - OK. So, where are you currently living? In our vehicle. - Yeah, unfortunately, when we check
the court records and see an eviction, unfortunately, we can’t help you. OK. - All right, thank you. Thank you. Just like always. So, what now? There’s no compassion. If you hear, she talked about
if we check the court record then they're gonna see the
eviction and they can't help us. And that's going to be to
every property that we go. So I’ma just go to a totally
different realty company. 'Cause that was Cozy Homes
or whatever they call it. Cozy Homes. I wish I had a cozy home. So I’m gonna just go to the next realtor
now and try to find somebody else. I see a property that's listed on Zillow at 127 Burns Street in the city of Hampton. - Yes, ma’am. The qualifications are that
you be on your job for a year, not have any judgements
for rent or collections or utilities. We do check
credit, rental history. OK. So one of them strikes us out
because we have an eviction. - Oh boy. Yeah, that we're dealing with right now. We’re, like, living in our car. - Oh no. You can go to this place ... I knew it was gonna be another no. This gets so frustrating. And I just gotta keep looking
because I just can’t sit around. I can’t sit around in this car all day. Trying to keep a level head, people don’t know that they
have your lives in their hands. All they gotta do is say yes. Yes, we’ll work with you. In early September, the CDC passed
a nationwide eviction moratorium, stating that landlords can’t force tenants
out of their homes for failure to pay rent, except under certain circumstances. However in Virginia, eviction
hearings have actually increased. There's been roughly
35,000 of them in the state since the moratorium was enacted. Many of these renters, like Margaret
and John, have nowhere to go. Hi, this is Phil Storey from
the eviction legal helpline. I'm an attorney. I'm trying to reach you
to see if we can answer any questions and provide you with legal advice. Before the pandemic, we were
getting probably five calls a day. During the pandemic now, we're
probably getting 15 to 20 calls a day. Phil Storey helps tenants like Margaret understand their rights when
they’re facing an eviction. These days, he’s spending
a lot of time helping renters navigate the CDC’s moratorium, which is supposed to stop
most evictions until 2021. One of the things that surprises people is they think that if the law says someone is protected, that they will actually be protected. And it’s not that easy. There's a lot of discretion
that judges have around the process, as well as how
they interpret what somebody's rights are. You know, a fair chunk of our callers, if they're eligible for the CDC's protections, it does protect them and
they're not being evicted. Another decent sized chunk, the landlord wants to go ahead anyway. And so, they're going to have to
probably file something in court and ask a judge to step in. In court, renters present a form stating that they’re protected from
eviction under the moratorium. However, Margaret says this
didn’t help her case. When I went to court,
it was absolutely traumatizing. When I presented the judge the moratorium, he just looked at it. I mean, it was just like, it was
absolutely nothing to him. Landlords are far more likely
to have lawyers than tenants. So, a tenant has to ask a judge to
intervene and stop an eviction. That's difficult if you're not a lawyer. And then if your landlord
shows up with a lawyer, the deck is kind of stacked against you. Knowing that we really don't have any rights and being that she's a landlord and she can hire an attorney and we don't, we can't afford
to get an attorney. I knew that we were going
to end up on the streets. As the eviction crisis grows, it’s fallen on grassroots
organizations across the country to educate people about their rights. Tidewater Tenants Rights has been
visiting at-risk communities to spread the word about their
protections under the CDC moratorium. My name is Logan. I'm from
Tidewater Tenants Rights. We're just spreading information
about the local eviction crisis. In this complex, actually on Tuesday, there are going to be two
people with eviction court cases. They say there’s a kind of
“moratorium lottery” going on — meaning where you live could determine how harshly or leniently
the laws are interpreted. People are largely confused on what
the moratorium actually means. You know, we were confused about it ourselves. In this area, it seems like a lot of the judges are harsher than in other areas of Virginia. So even though we had this form signed and gave it to a judge in a Virginia Beach court, the judge decided not to honor it. If you decided to live in the wrong area,
then you could be out on the street. For now, Margaret and John
are staying in their car so they can save up every
penny for a new home. Let’s just park in the
front right now, husband. And then we'll move to the side
later when it gets a little bit darker. Usually we just try to hook
up something to watch so it'll feel a little bit normal,
like home or whatever. I'm out here and being concerned about somebody's gonna come and hurt us, or are we going to get sick? The CDC order, it offers, you know,
four months of protection to a lot of folks, or should. And that's great, but
it's just sort of moving the date of reckoning a little
bit further down the road. When those measures run out, it's going to be hundreds of
thousands of people in Virginia that are on the edge of eviction. On December 31, the CDC’s
eviction moratorium expires, leaving millions across the country in the
same potential situation as Margaret and John. I'll be tired in my body
like I am right now, but I can't let that get to me. There are people that are out here
that literally needs a place, a roof. You know what I'm saying? This is where me and my,
I mean, this is our roof. And luckily, we have this car or else we probably
have to sleep under a tree. Literally.
