Evicted Clinton Township Man Thought He Was Protected During CERA Application Process
(CBS DETROIT)- 21 year old Maurice Hall, is having a horrible week.
"You have 24 hours before we evict you," said Maurice Hall.
That was earlier this week. Hall says on Wednesday he got a knock on the door of his Clinton Township home. On the other end was a court officer telling him he had 30 minutes to vacate the property.
Hall admits to being behind on rent, due to being out of work, but says this all caught him by surprise.
"I did what I was supposed to do, I filed for CERA I let my landlords know what was going on, I'm communicating hopefully I can get some time to figure this out," Hall said.
Hall says he thought he was protected from eviction while his paperwork was being processed through the Macomb County courts.
Ernest Cawvey with Macomb Community Action says, anyone falling behind on rent should complete the CERA application.
"The Michigan Supreme Courts issued guidance that no eviction proceeding can proceed to settlement if a CERA application is in process and again that's CERA, it stands for Coronavirus Emergency Rental assistance," said Ernest Cawvey Director of the Macomb County Community Action.
Hall says he applied for CERA back in July. He's since had 2 court dates.
Cawvey says the County is currently processing over 3000 applications as quickly as possible, and has so far distributed $6 million in rental support during the pandemic.
An attorney for ROCO real estate, the company who manages Garfield Commons Apartments sent us the following statement.
"Garfield Court Apartments has encouraged and cooperated with any tenant applying for rental assistance through CERA or other programs. Mr Hall, however, did not supply any information as to a pending application and did not appear for any court dates to resolve his unpaid balance. He did not respond to any court documents and did not submit a CDC Moratorium affidavit to the property or to the Court. Therefore, a writ of eviction was properly filed." -ROCO Real Estate
Macomb County official's say there's free legal help available through Lakeshore Legal Aid if you find yourself facing eviction.
Information on this and any other assistance can be found here.
https://mca.macombgov.org/Mca-Home
Information for food assistance in Macomb County can be found here.
https://gis.macombgov.org/go/food
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