Inhumanity: Eviction To Be Carried Out by Habitat for Humanity, Leaving 38-Year Resident Homeless
Action needed to support family: details at end of the article.
Kathy Majors has lived in her home on Aurora St. for most of her life. She painted yellow dots on the side of the house, and her kale and mint plants line the backyard. She lives with her son when he’s not on the job with his father, James Lukasavage, a long-haul driver and part-time resident. An elderly resident named Steve has rented a room for 13 years. They like it there, and they want to stay.
“Every year I’d go to pay my taxes just fine, but when COVID19 hit everything shut down,” said Kathy. Originally from Laos, Kathy had lived in the house with her late husband until his death. When the COVID19 lockdown occurred, she was unable to read the sign on the locked door of Ithaca City Hall that she’d need to pay taxes online. Without knowing what was happening, their home was foreclosed on. James notes they’ve yet to receive any notification regarding the foreclosure.
After houses go through tax foreclosure, they are auctioned off. In Ithaca, an annual foreclosure auction is run by the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency — a city branch that “works to improve the economic, social, and physical characteristics of low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods,” and is a funder of Habitat for Humanity. Urban renewal is often a euphemism for the forced displacement of poor and marginalized people.
Habitat for Humanity of Tompkins & Cortland County bought Kathy’s home for $27,267 in September of 2021: a steal for a house worth $200,000.
Then, in February of this year, Kathy and James were unknowingly sent through eviction court. Habitat for Humanity hired eviction attorney Mike Perehinec, who stated in court that they’d attempted to reach out to the “squatters” but had heard nothing back. Perehinec, an eviction attorney responsible for several dozen individual eviction cases just this year, has a pattern of withholding information during trials. Kathy could not read any of the documents, but this was ignored or obscured in the process. They received a default judgment to evict by Judge Seth Peacock.
“I want to stay here,” said Kathy. “I don’t go anywhere, this is my home.”
“I thought Habitat for Humanity was supposed to have a good reputation but they took advantage of the COVID19 pandemic and we weren’t notified of anything.” said James, “We have an immigrant who worked hard all her life, a disabled child, an elderly renter, and a cat. We should be ideal candidates for Habitat for Humanity.”
Habitat for Humanity will claim that they have to evict this family, that it is one regrettable action in the grand scheme of their charitable activity. But they don’t have to — they should return ownership of the house to the family who lives there. There’s precedent for returning houses to families who face tax foreclosure, and it’s hypocritical for Habitat for Humanity to claim to be “building homes and hope” while displacing this family from their longterm home. We call on Habitat to do the right thing!
Why is it that Habitat for Humanity needs to replace this family with another? By insisting that their ownership of the property and rules for identifying recipients precede the current residents’ needs, Habitat is putting their wishes and power first. Marginalized households deserve agency in their housing choices, but yet again we see a land-owning nonprofit blatantly disregarding the needs of the residents.
ACTION NEEDED:
Tomorrow 8/19 we will be holding an eviction blockade & press conference from 9 AM-12 PM at 417 S. Aurora St. Habitat for Humanity is planning to evict our neighbor, after her house of nearly 40 years was stolen by foreclosure. We are trying to stop the eviction by blocking the house, and calling on Habitat for Humanity to return the house to Kathy.
We are working to reopen the case in court, but we have to show up for this family in the meantime.
Please continue to call (and text!) (607) 844–3529 and demand that Habitat for Humanity call off the eviction & return the home to Kathy and her family. As a national nonprofit possessing many millions in real estate, Habitat for Humanity is able to forgo a <$7k loss in order to assist a working-class family in staying housed — and their stated mission compels them to do so.
RSVP to tomorrow’s action here -> https://forms.gle/c9bpsmP8EPAJSQDS9
