Family still being told to leave their apartment after getting CARES assistance

Oklahoma City, Okla. (KOKH) — A day after getting her eviction case thrown out in court and getting approved for rent assistance, one woman says she was told to be out of her apartment by the end of the month anyway.

On a normal day for Jeanna Hunter during the pandemic, she would be staying inside to homeschooling her kids.

Her apartment is not her ideal living situation.

Hunter says in the year she's been there, she's had leaky windows, mold and more recently, the air conditioning went out forcing her to buy her own window unit.

On Monday, she had to go to eviction court for being about a month late on her rent.

Hunter lost her job earlier this year.

With auto-immune diseases, she says she was risking her health going in public.

“As a matter of fact, after court yesterday, the following day, I was pretty sick all day," Hunter said.

Hunter says her case was thrown out, and she was even approved for rental assistance, but the next day had another notice on her door.

“They left a notice that since I’m month to month, I’ll need to leave on September 1, and all it says is due to recent events, which I don’t know what that really means," Hunter said.

She's being told her family needs to be out in one week.

Fox 25 caught up with the property owner, who has filed dozens of evictions this month for his two apartment complexes.

“It’s when you’ve got other issues, crime issues, cops out here for your unit, that’s when you go, we’re going to use non-payment because usually that’s the simpler one than a police report," said Landon Wilkinson, the property owner.

Wilkinson says they told all of their tenants to reach out if they're having trouble paying because of coronavirus, but so far, he says no one has.

The property owner says Hunter was given 30 days' notice that they would be ending her lease, saying she had been rude to her property manager.

He also showed Fox 25 his copy of the document.

Hunter maintains that she knew nothing about it until Tuesday, and right now doesn't know where she'll go next.

“I was just crying at my kitchen table this morning because it feels like, for what?" Hunter said. "Why can’t they just leave me alone and let me just pay my rent."

Free legal help for people facing eviction is being offered by Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma and the group, Community CARES is providing some with rent assistance.