With temperatures well below freezing a group of Peoria activists, including civil-rights activist Lawrence Maushard and the Peoria chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, are calling on Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell to halt evictions performed by his deputies until late-March of this year. Said evictions have been ordered by a judge and are carried out by Sheriff’s Deputies.
The below petition was delivered directly to Sheriff Asbell and a short demonstration was held outside his office.
Those still wishing to sign the petition can do so here.
Maushard said, “With families of defenseless women, children and seniors in mind, we are pleading with our Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell to immediately reimpose a winter moratorium on all residential evictions during the current pandemic crisis.
“Since the statewide eviction moratorium was lifted in early October 2021, nearly 200 evictions have been carried out in Peoria County, with at least 52 households alone emptied during the month of December.
“Those numbers represent only the legal evictions occurring locally. Dozens of illegal evictions in & around Peoria happen daily due to the numbers of slumlords here who operate by intimidation, threats and violence against defenseless low-income families.”
An illegal eviction is when a landlord uses force to evict their renter rather than following state eviction guidelines. Illegal Eviction Tactics include:
- Physical violence or threats of violence
- Sexual Harassment, Threats, or Assaults
- Changing the locks
- Removing the front door
- Removing tenant’s belongings without a court order
- exaggerating or falsifying of reasons (also known as “just cause”) for evicting a renter
Local socialist Nicholas Hall said, “People are being left out literally in the cold.”
“We need to help the residents of this city. We need to shift the way housing is being used, away from being a commodity away from something that is bought and sold for the profit of a single individual, to serve the purpose of providing shelter to those that need it so that the can stay warm and not be left out in dangerous conditons during the winter.
“If the police do not proceed to halt these evictions, I think it proves, pretty unanimously, what we’ve always been saying as socialists, the police do not serve the interests of the people or working class. Instead the police are designed to protect the interests of those who own property to use it to exploit other people who work a regular job.”
Lynn Fingerhut, “I live in the city of Peoria. We see it in our neighborhoods; we see the piles of belongings on the street. There’s absolutely no reason for evictions to continue right now during the worst of the pandemic.”
Activists ran into the Sheriff as he was leaving for the day. The below interview was between Sheriff Asbell and Lawrence Maushard.
The Sheriff mentioned how there were multiple problems compounded by the pandemic beyond housing. He said, “I got a fight right now with IDOC [Illinois Department of Corrections] where they are breaking the law by not taking their prisoners. That’s why we have 120 inmates we shouldn’t even have right now.”
Sheriff Asbell is referring to the recent IDOC order limiting intake of prisoners who have been convicted & sentenced. IDOC made the decision after COVID-19 numbers in the jail increased dramatically. I go into greater detail about this topic in an earlier article.
“Please, put this vigor and this energy towards contacting Jehan Gordan, Dave Koehlor, Ryan Spain,” the Sheriff continued. The Sheriff assured activists that there are resources available to evicted residents with no where to go. “Theres never a situation where if we think someone is going to be homeless or on the street–that’s not going to happen; arrangements will be made.”
When slumlords were brought up, Asbell recognized that some landlords are slumlords. At the same time, he said there were several people he knew personally, that own only a few properties, and their livelihoods depend on it.
Asbell encouraged activists to take their concerns to the judges signing the eviction orders. “I’m beholden to what the judges says.” Asbell says if he unilaterally imposed a moratorium he could be thrown into contempt of court and become open to civil litigation.
Activists argue other Sheriffs across the country have instituted such moratoriums before. They mention two examples: Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and St. Louis County Sheriff Vernon Betts.
“October 2008, during the height of the housing crisis when the county was seeing a record number of foreclosures, Sheriff Dart unilaterally stopped his office from carrying out evictions in foreclosure cases. His office only resumed evictions after the county court system agreed to reform certain aspects of the eviction process to provide more protections to tenants. The courts did not intervene against the sheriff, and the Illinois Attorney General at the time supported the moratorium.”
Protesters demand Cook County Sheriff stop the evictions
Then-State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez told Sheriff Dart “eviction orders signed by a judge must be enforced.”1 Dart has not enacted any moratorium on evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts has enacted a moratorium on evictions during the holiday season, however, it does not seem to be for pandemic-related reasons. For almost five years now, Betts has halted enforcement on all evictions related to non-payment specifically for the holidays, as it would end on New Years Eve. “Evictions involving criminal activity, known as nuisance evictions, will still happen.“2 It’s not clear whether he has extended the moratorium into the new year.
For the next seven days, the estimated lowest temperature for the day is an average of 10°F, with at least three days predicted to be at temperatures as low as 2°F.
This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com.
