I am a single, disabled Black women being wrongfully evicted. I do not owe any back rent. However, my landlord has fabricated legal statements saying that I do even though I have proof to the contrary. My landlord created more fabricated information stating I broke the lease & the fuse box which of course is not true. And the landlords electrician confirmed the fuse box wasn’t broken in August. Additionally, the City of Hartford’s interior inspector concludes this, because she checked every socket in the apartment & they worked. So if the fuse box was broken the sockets would not have worked.

I have multiple videos of vermin in my apartment that I emailed to landlord in July 2022 asking for my rent to be lowered. Because it’s not a new issue but once I obtained video of it I thought the landlord would’ve done something about it as it is a major health problem. To no avail, the office manager lied on me to a City exterior inspector saying they offered to have a vermin exterminator come to my apartment and I refused. The landlord was made aware verbally and in writing of other tenants hitting, prying, & sticking objects between the door and the sill and yanking them out. This happened in the day and night causing me not to be able to sleep & fear for my safety. Also causing both my mental & medical health issues to worsen. The integrity of the door has been comprised and damaged the door’s wood veneer on the inside. And I have multiple police reports attesting to this damage.

I asked that cameras be put in the hallways where tenants’ doors are located. Even after two people have been shot here. One inside the building and the other outside on the property. The landlord still has not put cameras in the hallways to provide a safe environment. This is clearly discrimination & retaliation by the landlord & her office manager. I have a legal aid lawyer, but even if I win the case, simply having an eviction filed against me will cause me not to be able to rent another apartment in the future.

I am also being discriminated against by the Hartford Housing Authority. I haven’t been able to receive any correspondence from them since June 2020, being told many different stories regarding why the updated wait list info hasn’t been sent out. Even after speaking with a supervisor, I was told the zero bedroom wait list was sent out in February this year & the 2-3 bedroom wait lists were sent out in July. I asked the supervisor why weren’t the 1 bedroom wait lists sent out? Her response was, there are just so many 2-3 applications. I was dumbfounded by her nonsensical response. I tried filing a discrimination complaint with HUD and I was told because racial slurs weren’t used it’s not discrimination. Again I was dumbfounded by his response. Because discrimination isn’t just racial. It also includes my family status which is single & I’m disabled.

The blatant discrimination by this landlord, the Hartford Housing Authority, & HUD is going to cause me to end up in a shelter or on the street. The rates for Black women being evicted are the highest in Connecticut & across the country. So even though landlords aren’t using racial slurs, the sheer numbers prove discrimination & something must be done immediately to stop these deplorable, illegal acts.