Eviction Began My Life on The Streets

Eviction Began My Life On The Streets

By Renee Bowen

Where does one start when ones life is ripped apart and forced into a living nightmarish hell…

The news came late that night, well past midnight on the night of August 28, 2000 – slipped under my door.    The uneasy feeling I couldn’t shake growing inside as that envelope caught my attention the following morning-– the sounds of scraping paper resounding through my head, the mere sight of it filling my heart with dread.   I faintly recall the whoosh pass over my floor, though it didn’t register until the next morning.   The envelope flap had been tucked under, not sealed, with only my first and last name printed on it.    An eviction suit had been filed against me by the landlord managing the property.   

 —Beginning September 1st, 2000 began my journey into circumstances not of my choosing, yet I’m the one living and breathing the sentence given to me through the illegal actions of a landlord–  literally putting me on the cold, hard streets by his illegal activities I would not allow to continue at my expense.   And so begins my journey into the nightmarish living hell that has become my life, my very existence.   Happening in the city of Alameda, where tenants’ rights do not exist and landlords are given full reign to do whatever they want, whenever, and however they choose, tenants having absolutely NO say in the matter, regardless of the illegal activities the landlord does, they are given the reins to dismantle someone’s life in whatever capacity they choose.   

Employed then at Virgin Records in San Francisco; making nothing, working heavy O/T whenever I could just to make ends even remotely meet.   Whenever I left for more than a few minutes, I would come home and find things missing.    I started making a fuss about different items disappearing while I was gone, and my rent gets raised, and only my rent–  no one else’s.    When I changed my locks, the landlord filed a complaint against me telling the authorities he ‘Could not access my unit’, and was required to have a key to all units to get in for “repairs and emergencies”, so I was forced to comply, regardless of the fact I was never once notified when he entered my unit for anything, which he was required by law to do.   This was all brushed off when I started making complaints, which only fell on deaf ears, because after all, I was merely a tenant, nothing more.    As more and more started disappearing, I made a bigger fuss, resulting in only my rent being raised.    The Housing Authority is a joke, and the rent board offered no assistance, telling me “There was NO ‘Rent Control’ in the city of Alameda”, the landlord was free to raise the rent at any point to whatever amount they chose.   

When continually increasing my rent didn’t get me out, the landlord decided to Sue me for Eviction–  Regardless of the fact my rent was never late and usually paid early, the Landlord rented out my unit, sight unseen, while I was still living there paying rent.    Since the law in Alameda is fully on the landlord’s side, tenants only viewed as disposable commodities, he was able to Sue me for Eviction, and win.   All legal assistance was futile, telling me ‘I have no legal recourse’.    To make it through each passing day, and endless night from the draining reality of living and being on the streets, I pray, I meditate, and write; animals becoming my solace, my confidants, my closest friends, giving me the strength to face another day, nurturing my heart, my soul.