By Kimberly Berryman and Nick Watt, CNN
When CNN knocked on her door, Dasha Kelly panicked, thinking the eviction she was afraid of was finally near.
“You honestly scared me this morning when you knocked,” she said.
Kelly – who was in the apartment with her friend Sharron’s (8) three daughters; Kia, 6; and Imani, 5, lives on borrowed time.
She’s two months behind schedule on her two-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas. The eviction notice she received is kept in a drawer in the kitchen, invisible but memorable.
“I really think they’re coming any minute.”
The state eviction moratorium, which helped keep tenants in their homes during the pandemic, expired at midnight Saturday, paving the way for landlords to evict tenants whose rent was overdue. States are active to avert mass displacement, but not all can be reached or helped in time.
Kelly says she lost her job as a card dealer when Covid-19 forced the famous Las Vegas casinos to close their doors last year.
She has had a few temporary jobs since then, but not enough to keep up with the rent.
The apartment is empty except for a small sofa in the living room and a TV. Kelly says she sleeps on the floor in the larger bedroom, while the girls she looks after part-time share a smaller room with no bed.
“There are days when I don’t even want to roll out the bed (or) the floor, you know what I mean?” She said.
More than 11 million Americans are behind on their rent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Congress approved $ 46 billion to help, but very little of that money was paid out. In Nevada, a new law stipulates that tenants who have applied for the Cares Housing Assistance Program (CHAP) cannot be evicted while their case is being processed. However, the bureaucratic process can be complicated and not every landlord or tenant keeps up with the ever-changing rules.
Nevada has extended its evacuation protection to those who are in the process of applying for rental assistance. The state has also passed a law to seal evacuation records from the pandemic.
Kelly had created a $ 2,000 GoFundMe page in July to raise funds for her rent.
By Sunday evening, it had raised more than $ 200,000.
GoFundMe tells CNN that they are in close contact with Kelly and the funds are on hold until they verify their information. GoFundMe says no funds were withdrawn.
Both the girl’s mother, Shadia Hilo, and Kelly tell CNN that the girls will return home to Hilo at the start of the school year while Kelly determines her next move.
The CNN Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia company. All rights reserved.
