Landlord Candelaria, Judge Baio at Tuesday’s online hearing.
Elizabeth Candelaria had reached her limit.
She’d been working with her Judith Terrace tenant for years when the tenant couldn’t come up with the rent.
On Tuesday, she asked Judge Claudia Baio to finally order her tenant to leave.
That happened at a Superior Court hearing held online.
Candelaria, who lives in Wallingford, bought the three-family Judith Terrace house in 1998. She represented herself at Tuesday’s hearing. So did the tenant, Carmen Martinez.
In a suit seeking to evict Martinez, Candelaria stated that Martinez hadn’t paid rent since December 2019.
Martinez told the judge Tuesday that her husband only just started receiving disability checks and asked if she could have the rest of the month before moving out.
“I know she wants me out, I just need till the end of the month,” she said. “We’ve been struggling since the beginning,” Martinez added.
She also noted that the landlord has been “nice.” In court documents, she indicated that Candelaria agreed to drop her rent by $300 in January 2020 until Martinez could gain a full-time job.
Judge Claudia Baio asked if Candelaria would agree to allow Martinez to stay through the month. Candelaria declined, citing previous mediation in which the two parties agreed on a final stay of execution that would end March 1.
“I can’t do it no more. I just want them to move,” Candelaria said. “I have a lot of bills to pay.”
Judge Baio sided with the landlord. She ordered Martinez to leave the premises now.
“The court has to enforce [the eviction order] because I haven’t heard anything showing any change that would justify that,” the judge added.
However, she also said that the order itself will take a few days before taking effect. So it will take a few days more before the marshal takes action on actually seizing the property.
“You may have a little bit of time to start getting things in order,” Judge Baio said to Martinez, also indicating that the two could use the extra days to try to reach an agreement outside of the courtroom.
Candelaria’s face remained impassive as the verdict was announced.
More info on related issues, organizations:
Local Learn: Connecticut Coalition To End Homelessness
National Act:• National Alliance To End Homelessness
Local Act: Empower underserved communities in Connecticut
Local Learn: New Haven community wealth-building initiatives
National Act: Organizations that support community development
This is why we need government subsidized low income and affordable housing. Because it's not fair to make individual landlords subsidize tenants who can't afford the rent. And because we have tenants who can't make a living wage to afford housing.