The Santa Fe organization that took over Española’s public housing program Jan. 1 is threatening to evict almost two dozen poor residents who have delinquent utility bills.
“It says in the Bible you gotta love one another,” said Tommy Lopez, a resident in the Calle del Pajarito public housing neighborhood. “It’s not happening. They’re just cleaning house.”
The Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority filed eviction proceedings against Lopez Jan. 21 in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court, and it has a list of approximately 20 more residents who have outstanding utility bills with the city of Española.
“Obviously nobody wants to make someone homeless,” Authority Executive Director Ed Romero said. “What we’re asking our clients is not to make themselves homeless by not paying their utility bills and not responding to the warnings that we send them.”
City records show that on Dec. 31, there were 39 public-housing residents with delinquent accounts. The majority of those accounts had balances of less than $200, and only two accounts had balances over $400. The majority of the residents had made significant payments, though not enough to erase the balance, within the prior three months.
That’s a lot different than the picture Romero initially painted. He had said some of the accounts owed thousands of dollars, and hadn’t been paid for up to 10 or 12 months.
Asked about the discrepancy, Romero said the unpaid balances are “significant” when compared to the tenant’s income, and several hundred dollars could be an insurmountable debt. Authority Deputy Director Rudy Gallegos reiterated that his goal is not to evict people, but rather to bring them in and set them on a payment plan.
Since the city’s December delinquency list was compiled, 11 of the residents made significant payments toward their balances.
The whole process began with the Authority examining those delinquent accounts, not too long after it signed a management agreement with the city to take over the embattled Española Public Housing Authority in October 2008. The Santa Fe Authority now manages the Calle de Pajarito, Apple Valley and Calle Duran public housing neighborhoods and the city’s old section-eight rental voucher program.
Acting City Manager Veronica Albin said she’s the main point of contact between the city and the Authority now that the city’s Housing Commission is defunct. She said the city will now report any utility delinquencies to the Authority on a monthly basis.
Once an account is past due for 60 days, the city automatically initiates a cycle of four increasingly dire notices before it shuts off service. City Utility Billing Supervisor Sandra Bustos said at least four or five of the public-housing accounts were shut off in December.
The Authority can’t allow people to live in a unit once the utilities are disconnected, Romero said. That’s the situation of Lopez, who said he’s borrowing water from neighbors since his was shut off.
The eviction proceedings against Lopez cite non-payment of utilities along with unsanitary living conditions within his unit. Lopez admits he stopped paying his rent for the last couple of months.
He said he doesn’t know what he’ll do if he loses his eviction case in court. He’s living on $400 a month in social security disability payments, and said he’s been unable to find a job. He said he’s thinking about leaving Española, after living in the city for six years.
“They just want me to leave, so I’d rather just leave,” Lopez said.
‘Can’t Foot the Bill’
The Authority is after more than just a few hundred dollars in unpaid utility bills. The campaign is also a way for new management to lay down the law and enforce responsibility among tenants.
“The main issue that we want to enforce is your house should be your number one, or at the very top of, your priorities,” Romero said. “We can’t foot the bill, and I’m sure the city isn’t willing to say, ‘Okay, well you’ve fallen on hard times, we’ll just provide you free utilities.’”
Unfortunately for the Authority, a tight relationship did exist between the city and its housing program. A handful of the delinquent accounts don’t even bear a tenant’s name — they’re in the name of the Española Public Housing Authority, which wasn’t enforcing the requirement that tenants open their own utility accounts before moving in.
One of those accounts belongs to Pajarito resident Stephanie Moya. Moya said she was homeless when she got into public housing in 2007, and when they moved her to a larger unit last year she couldn’t afford the connection fee — which can be as high as $380, to reconnect terminated service.
“I spoke with Housing when (former housing coordinator Eluvina Vigil) was working there,” Moya said. “She said she would help us until I could pay it.”
The city has now worked out a plan under which public housing residents will pay just $130 to connect or reconnect service in their names. But in general, residents won’t get the same level of sympathy from the Authority.
“It may not have been enforced very well,” Romero said. “So there was some belief that they didn’t have to make the payments and nothing would happen to them. So that’s probably part of the calls and complaints you may be receiving is, ‘They never did this to us before.’ But on the other hand, that’s part of the reason the (Española Housing Authority) was in the situation it was in.”
Moya, who also depends on disability payments, has received a notice saying if she doesn’t take the account in her name and pay the balance, she could be evicted.
With six children to support and a husband still recovering from surgery, she went to charities in Santa Fe to seek help. She said she finally borrowed enough money to put down $180 on the account.
“I really can’t afford to get thrown out right now,” Moya said.
Residents have until early to mid February to begin making payments, or else face eviction. Gallegos said he only expects to file a handful of eviction proceedings, since more and more people have been getting on payment plans.