Sacramento renter reported code violations to city. Now she’s facing eviction
About six weeks after a Sacramento woman called the city to report code violations at her rental home, she came home to find a letter taped to her door.
Yanika Gilbert, 39, and her nephew, 15, had just three days to get out of the south Sacramento house or the landlord would file eviction paperwork at the courthouse, the letter said.
With nowhere to go, the pair did not leave. The eviction is now underway. If they have to go, Gilbert said she will not only become homeless, but also could lose custody of her nephew Dimitris Gilbert, who’s been in her care for the last decade.
“I was the only one in my family to take care of him and now I might lose him,” Gilbert said through tears during a press conference with tenant advocates outside the Carol Miller Justice Center Thursday. One shaking hand held a microphone, while the other held a sign that read, “NO MORE LANDLORD RETALIATION & EVICTION!”
While she spoke, a man came out of the county building and started shouting, “pay your rent!”
The comment threw her off, and she quickly finished her comments. A state worker with the Franchise Tax Board, Gilbert has never missed a rent payment for the three and a half years she has lived at the house, she said.
National property management company HomeRiver Group is seeking the eviction for other reasons — alleging she sublet the apartment, made verbal threats to neighbors and staff, and engaged in “violent fights,” according to the April 13 three-day notice.
“HomeRiver Group has addressed all maintenance and code issues at the property and will continue to address any issues reported by the tenant regardless of any eviction proceedings,” Shawn Collins, HomeRiver regional manager of California, said in an email Thursday “The pending eviction is not related to tenant reported maintenance or code issues.”
The allegations are false, said Gilbert. HomeRiver sent her an email in February asking her to renew the lease, but has not responded to emails or calls since Gilbert called the city, Gilbert said. The company did not accept her rent payments for the last two months.
Flooded with feces
Gilbert had been asking HomeRiver for plumbing repairs dating back to December 2018 when she moved in, she said. In February the issue came to a head when she came home from a weekend trip to find her bedroom flooded with sewage and feces, she said. HomeRiver said it would take three days to send someone out, so Gilbert contacted the city’s code compliance division, she said.
The city assigned the complaint to an employee on March 17, and after an inspection, issued code violations determining the sewer had been replaced without a permit or inspection, according to a city website. The city also issued code violations for broken foundation vent screens, branches and debris blocking front of the electric panel, and deteriorated exterior paint. The case is still active, meaning the city has not yet verified that the owner has addressed all the violations.
If Gilbert is evicted, she likely will not be able to find a two-bedroom apartment she can afford in the current market, she said. After she got the notice, she started looking at listings. Even one-bedrooms were $1,500 to $2,000 she found. Her current rent is about $1,300. She takes home about $31,000 a year after taxes.
At night, Gilbert barely sleeps, she said. She’s been suffering from bouts of depression.
“If I get an eviction on my record, I might as well go live in a trailer,” Gilbert said. “I pray every night. I pray things will go my way.”
COVID eviction protections expire
Between March 19, 2021 and March 19, 2022, more than 1,231 people were evicted from their home by a Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy after their case concluded in court, a Sacramento Bee analysis found. Many more likely left before it got to that stage, experts say.
Now that the last layer of the statewide pandemic eviction protections expired July 1, renter advocates expect the number to accelerate.
“We keep seeing greed prioritized over families,” said Jovana Fajardo of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.
The group is urging Sacramento to adopt an anti-harassment policy, as Los Angeles has done. The Los Angeles ordinance prohibits landlords from harassing tenants by removing housing services, withholding repairs or refusing to accept rent payments.
The group is also pushing for a statewide right to legal counsel, said Monica Madrid of the renter advocacy organization.
In court, landlords usually win. Like many tenants, Gilbert has not been able to find an attorney to take her case. She is waiting to hear back from Legal Services of Northern California, one of the few organizations that can help.
Her landlord has hired the Law Offices of Thomas M. Hogan, based in Sacramento, to represent him in the case.
Pramod Kumar has owned Gilbert’s house since December 2017, according to the county assessor’s office. His mailing address is in the San Jose area.
This story was originally published July 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
