LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  In early 2020, Jhala Fisher was working as a home health aide, adjusting to a new city, and making a home with her dog at Southwood Apartments near Iroquois Park. Then, COVID-19 hit. 

What You Need To Know

  • The CDC’s eviction moratorium expires at the end of the year

  • Tens of thousands of Kentuckians face eviction in January

  • Jhala Fisher, 26, is due in eviction court next week

  • Fisher says her landlord has made it hard for her catch up on late rent payments

“I lost my job. Then, I wasn’t able to pay my rent. Then, I got an eviction letter,” Fisher told Spectrum News 1. Fisher, who pays $499 per month for her one-bedroom apartment, and her landlord appeared in virtual court over the summer, but the eviction was dismissed, she said. On Nov. 20, she received another eviction notice. 

“They have literally no mercy,” Fisher, 26, said. “They come knock on your door telling you you owe this amount of money, but how can we get that amount of money? It’s crazy.” Michael Maple, an attorney for S.W. Apartments, LLC, the company that owns Fisher’s apartment complex, declined to comment for this story. 

Over the last nine months, Fisher has received help and offers of help from a smattering of local organizations, including the Louisville Urban League, Legal Aid Society, and South Louisville Community Ministries. She also recently landed a job processing medical claims from home. But Fisher said her landlord is insisting on all back rent and fees — around $4,500 — in a lump sum. “There’s no way I can get caught up if I can’t make partial payments,” she said. 

On Dec. 14, Fisher will once again have her case heard in court to find out if she will be evicted from her home. Like many Americans, she has taken advantage of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium. But the moratorium expires at the end of December, putting Fisher and up to 77,000 other Kentuckians at risk of eviction, according to an analysis of census data.

The expiration of the eviction moratorium is going to leave “a lot of people out on streets,” said Clare Wallace, Executive Director at South Louisville Community Ministries (SLCM). Wallace has worked with Fisher over the past several months, attempting to make back payments on her behalf. But both say Fisher's landlord would not accept the money.

As Fisher waits on her next court date, other Louisvillians are already getting evicted, despite government and nonprofit programs aimed at helping people make up back rent and the CDC's eviction moratorium, which tenants must opt into.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has 34 evictions scheduled for this week, office spokesperson Lt. Col. Carl Yates told Spectrum News 1. That’s on par with recent weeks, but roughly 40 percent of the evictions seen in non-COVID times. "It's not unusual for us to have 70 evictions in a week," he said.

Not all scheduled evictions actually take place though, Yates pointed out. Sometimes they're canceled by the landlord and many times, tenants have already left the property when the sheriff arrives. Given all of the challenges of the pandemic, Yates said, there has been an increase in tenants who simply refuse to leave this year.

“Because of COVID, we find people resisting and staying in their homes,” he said. “Most of the time, we can resolve it peacefully by putting them together with their landlord. We try to avoid arrest at all costs.”

“We understand these are difficult,” he added, noting that when the Sheriff's Office distributes eviction notices, it also shares information on programs to help renters.

Evictions in the middle of a pandemic are a danger to public health, the CDC says. Its moratorium order, issued in September, said preventing evictions "can be an effective public health measure utilized to prevent the spread of communicable disease." For this reason, activists have called on Louisville Metro Government to extend the eviction moratorium past Dec. 31.

In an emailed statement Thursday, Mayor Greg Fischer's communications director, Jean Porter, said Metro government has put $21.2 million in federal funding toward several eviction prevention programs. "Our Office of Housing and Office of Resilience and Community Services teams are working hard and quickly, with other community partners including Legal Aid, to connect residents to resources to help prevention evictions," she wrote.

This is not how 2020 was supposed to go for Fisher. Originally from Iowa, she moved to Louisville at the beginning of the year, settling in a few doors down from a friend at the South Louisville apartment complex.

As a home health aide, Fisher spent her days with elderly clients who needed companionship. When she lost her job, she survived with food stamps, assistance from organizations like SLCM, and even selling plasma. 

“I gave plasma when I wasn’t working, just to come up with the money to feed my dog and put gas in my car to go to interviews,” she said.

Fisher said the challenges of this past year have taken a toll. She’s now paranoid that each knock on her door is going to result in her belongings getting tossed on to the street. “I peek out my window constantly,” she said. 

The new job working from home for a pharmacy has provided some hope. And some money. “I’m pretty much working, trying to save just so I can move whenever I can find a place,” Fisher said. 

But the hunt has not been going well. With an eviction on her record, Fisher said, she’s having trouble finding a new apartment. Ultimately, she’d like to remain where she is now, an apartment that she says recently saw repairs to its sinking floor, black mold, and wall cracks. After the year Fisher has had, the stress of moving is the last thing she wants. 

“Honestly, I want to stay because I don’t want to move all my stuff out,” she said. “It’s a big process of moving. But if I have to leave, I have to leave.”

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