INDIANAPOLIS — Some Hoosiers are already facing eviction warnings after the eviction moratorium expired.
Jordan McKinney was laid off from her job in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic and says she didn't qualify for unemployment benefits because she started the job in February.
"I don't want to lose my home," McKinney said. "And I've been trying. I'm trying my hardest to pay but I can't."
She tried to work out a payment plan with her rental company because she has a 17-month-old daughter and fell behind on her rent and late fees.
"Whenever I got the letter, I called the next day and I talked to them about it. I said 'Is there any way that I can pay $100 or more a week?' and they said they were OK with that," McKinney said. "The girl said she was going to put it into the system. And then when I called yesterday, they said nobody put that in the system."
Her rental company told her they already started the pre-eviction process and she has until Aug. 31 to pay everything she owes in full or else she will be evicted.
"And then on top of that they already charged me 100 something dollars for the early filing," McKinney said. "I feel like they don't care. I feel like they're just trying to get their money."
Andrew Bradley, a policy director for Prosperity Indiana, said between 248,000 and 313,000 Hoosier households are at risk of eviction and only a small amount of them have been helped by the rental assistance program so far.
"I just saw some stats from Allen County in Fort Wayne that eviction filings are more than double than they were before the pandemic," Bradley said.
He recommended McKinney reach out to her landlord again in writing to demonstrate she is trying to make a payment plan and her trustee's office to get on the wait list for the city's rental assistance program. This way she can prove she is asking for help and willing to pay.
RESOURCES | Resources for Hoosiers facing eviction and homelessness
