Florida resident, Catherine Owens, was evicted from her Temple Terrace home after the state said they would assist her with rent payments.
On Dec. 22, 2021, the 30-year-old woman found a pink notice on her door that said she had five days to vacate her apartment because she was being evicted. She lived there with her 58-year-old mother, Tampa Bay Times reported. However, Owens and her mom were approved for rental assistance, so they didn’t understand why.
Owens and her mother applied for rental assistance from OUR Florida, the state’s emergency relief program. OUR Florida is a program of the Florida Department of Children and Families, with funding provided by the Department of Treasury through the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program. The program promised to give Florida renters relief, due to the pandemic, on unpaid rent and utility bills as they pursue financial stability.
The displaced woman reportedly said OUR Florida approved her application for assistance in September 2021, and they notified her that she would receive seven checks that total over $8,000. The checks were reserved for back rent she owed for August and September of 2021, rent for October to December of that year and January and February of this year.
Unfortunately, all of the money didn’t arrive. OUR Florida records showed that checks to cover Owens’ rent for October and November came in, but September and August’s rent wasn’t paid. They never deposited the back rent checks, so, as a result, they expired. As such, Owens submitted documents to her property manager stating that rent payments were on the way, but they decided to evict her anyway. Then, she reportedly sent an email about her situation.
“Hello, my name is Catherine Owens… I have been calling OUR Florida for months. I’m facing eviction when I’m supposed to be receiving help from this program,” she wrote to an OUR Florida case manager. “PLEASE, I NEED IMMEDIATE HELP!!!”
They didn’t respond.
“We were homeless, just like that,” she told Tampa Bay Times.
Owens said she tried calling the agency numerous times, to no avail, to inquire about her money.
“I’d be on hold for hours sometimes, and the line would disconnect. When I did get through to a customer service person, they’d tell me the same thing over again,” she said.
Owens’ phone records indicate that she contacted the program over nine times in December. In total, however, she said she called them over 30 times within the three months that she was waiting for her rent payments.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time OUR Florida was accused of not fulfilling its promises. News 13 reported that another Floridian woman, Josephine Bisono, was also evicted after the program took too long to send her rent payment checks. Shockingly, the program paid Bisono’s former landlord a month after being kicked out of her apartment.
“I have never asked for a handout. I have paid taxes. All I wanted was for OUR Florida to come through and help me out,” she said.
An OUR Florida rep told Tampa Bay Times that if a scheduled payment is flagged as undeposited, they contact the recipient 45 days after they send that payment and then again after 60 days. Afterward, they said, the agency calls the tenant three times to offer them help.
However, when they were asked about Owens’ claims, they didn’t respond.
Owens has since relocated to another place in Florida.
