Emergency Moving Fund

Emergency Moving Fund for Elder Black Activists

My name is Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, and my wife is JoNina Abron-Ervin. We live in Kansas City, Mo., and are both in our seventies. Recently, our absentee landlord, who lives in Australia, sent us an email message saying that on January 1, 2023, we will have to pay an additional $350 to rent the house where we have lived since April 2016. We cannot afford to pay the new rent and are being forced to move.

When we moved into the house, it was under a subsidized rent program created by a group of local real estate agents for senior citizens and low-income people. As a result, our rent has been low. The house is old, built in 1912, and is located in a low-income, inner-city neighborhood in Kansas City. Mr. Scrooge, the landlord wants us to pay $350 more in rent but won’t make the repairs necessary to make it worth the extra money. This is urban gentrification at its worst. Furthermore, the landlord is in violation of Kansas City rental housing regulations by not having a local property manager for the past five years. The house is poorly insulated. Consequently, JoNina and I have had to put insulation on the windows and doors to keep cold air out in the winter. This is a job for a property manager–not the tenants.

We have to move out of the house by January 1, 2023. As senior citizens, moving suddenly like this poses a threat to our health and security. We’ve not been able to find housing in Kansas City because of widespread discrimination against ex-offenders like me. We plan to move to my hometown, Chattanooga, Tennessee, where family and friends will help us secure housing. However, we must stay in Kansas City during January while we conclude our business here, including a medical procedure that I need at the Veterans Administration Hospital. We must rent storage space in Kansas City for our personal property, and we’ll have hotel expenses. Our total moving expenses will be at least $10,000.

It’s the holiday season, and we know that inflation is hitting most people very hard. But we ask you to contribute to our Emergency Moving Fund for Elder Black Activists if you can. Please spread the word. Help keep us from becoming more homeless victims on the streets.