‘Everything I had was gone.’ How eviction impacts students in Macon, Middle GA

At 16 years old, Alivia Johnson left school on a normal day to run some errands around Macon-Bibb County.

She kept getting phone calls from a strange number, and after a few, she decided to answer. The woman who was calling told Johnson that she had found her number in a stack of papers on the side of the road, and it looked like all of her belongings were out on the street.

“Whenever she says that, my heart drops. I’m like, okay, um, I told her I’m five minutes away. I’m leaving school. I’m on the way,” Johnson, who participated in the Mentor’s Project of Bibb County, said.

Johnson’s family, like hundreds of families in Macon-Bibb County, had been evicted from their home and all of their belongings were scattered on the side of the road. The woman who called tried to stop people from taking their belongings, but when Johnson arrived, most of her clothes, electronics and other belongings were gone.

“I was just saving up to buy my own clothes so those were things that I got for myself or that were gifted to me, like professional attire that my mentor would give to me and stuff like that. But mostly everything I had was gone,” she said. “It was a really vulnerable place to have everything taken from you.”

Johnson, who is now 18 years old and a freshmen at Fort Valley State University, said at the time of the eviction, she felt confused and even guilty about what was happening to her.

“Partly, I felt guilty, and that’s weird to say, but I felt guilty that it happened because we should have expected it and we expected it but it’s like we overlooked it at the same time,” she said. “I allowed myself to be put in a situation is how I was thinking about it. I didn’t do anything to stop it, and I was 16 years old. What, What was I supposed to do, you know? So yeah, I felt guilty because I’m like, I allowed myself to be to be put out like this.”

Johnson is just one of the several students June O’Neal, the executive director of the Mentor’s Project, has seen evicted over the past few years, and since the eviction moratorium ended, O’Neal said they have seen several families put out on the street.

“I’ve helped families move out of apartments so that their belongings won’t be put out. I’ve helped families relocate to the Resource Center aka the old Brookdale Elementary School, and I’ve just seen lives torn apart,” O’Neal said. “For children to be sitting at school, all masked up trying to do their work and not knowing where they’re going to spend the night or if they’re going to have a place to spend the night, that’s absolutely frightening.”

Why are people getting evicted

With the eviction moratorium, O’Neal said she believes people thought it meant they didn’t have to pay their rent, and some landlords have lost their properties because they couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage.

After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium in August, the Bibb County Civil and Magistrate could not honor any CDC eviction protection declarations from tenants, and therefore began evicting tenants who previously were protected.

Because some tenants didn’t understand they still had to pay their rent during the moratorium, they didn’t put their stimulus money towards rent, and now they owe incredible amounts of rent, O’Neal said.

“It’s horrible. It’s sad. It’s like seeing the fabric of their life ripped apart and you have no control over it,” O’Neal said.

When landlords get the opportunity to get tenants in their units that will pay rent, they take it, said Tracy Allen, a case manager for the Mentor’s Project.

She’s had clients owe several thousands of dollars in back rent, and she tried to explain to a client that they need to put whatever money they could towards their rent, Allen said.

“She did feel like there’s no hope because she was just telling me that she just got to end up homeless because she just, she just don’t have it,” Allen said. “She was like saying, ‘Well, it’s not my fault,’ because she actually lost her job during the pandemic.”

Impact of school age children

The next day after Johnson’s family was evicted she was volunteering for STEMtastic Saturdays, and her mentor was there.

“I just saw her, and I told her everything that happened, and I was just, I was just crying. I was bawling because I had to start over and I was finally getting to a point where I was getting the things that I needed and I was buying the things that I needed and I was getting on track like I needed to, like I was supposed to and it just was stripped away from me that easily, that fast,” Johnson said.

After spending two nights in a hotel, her family moved in with her grandparents, who had a four bedroom house that now had 10 people living in it. The eviction was a big turning point for her life.

“Being somewhere where you don’t have any privacy and in the house, my siblings are addicted to drugs, and it was just no one was on the right path. I’m the only one who values my education and no one else did,” she said.

Along with other family problems in her household, she was having a hard time focusing in her IB Program, so she decided to take a lighter course load the following semester in order to get back on track.

Danielle Jones, homeless and foster care liaison for Bibb County Schools, said her major responsibility is to make sure she removes the barriers for educational stability for students experiencing homelessness or who are in foster care, but the coronavirus pandemic presented several challenges.

“It’s been very challenging being such that the economic issues and the financial issues that the parents are currently facing has caused a lot of evictions, a lot of food insecurity. So it has made the job challenging in providing resources for those families,” she said.

She also has a hard time communicating with these families because they might not be able to afford a phone bill.

Once the eviction moratorium ended, Jones said she definitely saw an increase in students and families experiencing homelessness due to an eviction, and she saw a rise of families living in hotels and shelters.

An eviction impacts students in a lot of ways and can lead to a lack of focus, behavioral issues and frequent absences, Jones said.

“It impacts them emotionally, because you think about a child living in one place and in that neighborhood, a lot of times growing up with those friends at that school, and then once they’re evicted, of course, the parents have to move too and a lot of times, it can be clear across the city,” she said. “Being homeless is a source of trauma for a lot of kids, especially if they’re not aware of what’s going on.”

When students get evicted, a lot of times they lose most of their belongings, so part of Jones’ job is to provide school uniforms, supplies and even tutoring services to help them get back on track.

Jones also works to keep students at the same school in order to reduce the emotional trauma the student experiences, she said.

“Going to a new school, it’s almost like you go into a new city. You’re having to adjust to that culture, that environment, that place and it’s a place that you’ve never been before,” she said. “It’s an emotional roller coaster because we see our families as family. So you know how it is when your family goes through something, you’re going through it with the family.”

What is the solution?

In order to stop students from getting evicted, Macon-Bibb County needs more affordable housing options, Jones said.

“A lot of the families, it’s not that they don’t have income. I think the community just lacks a lot of affordable housing solutions. So when something like this happens, families have income, but they just don’t have enough income to sustain properties that are in Macon,” Jones said.

More homeless shelters and foster families to care for homeless children would also help alleviate some of the effects of evictions, Jones said.

O’Neal said the Macon Housing Authority does the best they can do to provide affordable housing for Macon-Bibb County residents, but the reality is Macon needs tons of apartments and houses that are affordable. It’s going to take the entire community to make that happen, she said.

“These are all our children. This is our community. We’re one of the richest countries in the world. Everybody deserves a roof over their head,” O’Neal said.

After Johnson’s family was evicted, she got a job as a waitress to make sure she wasn’t ever put in that situation again.

Through the Mentor’s Project, she was able to get new clothes and school supplies, and she said she was glad she was able to focus on her schoolwork, get scholarships and go to college.

“I don’t regret anything that happened because it’s going to build me to be the person that I need to be. But I guess I wish that it was a little bit easier because I see other people who have it, who have it easier,” she said.