Woman says she was evicted from KC area apartment after calling police on her abuser
Jenay Manley, a Kansas City mother of 6-year-old twins, feared facing eviction last year after her rent went up $600 a month. She decided she had to move back in with her abuser, fearing the only other option was homelessness.
Manley, 28, a survivor of domestic violence who has since moved out of her abuser’s home, was among two members of KC Tenants detained for trespassing Monday after trying to block Raytown police from entering the apartment complex of a women being evicted.
Days earlier, Amanda Williams, 37, called KC Tenants, a grassroots tenants’ rights organization in Jackson County, Missouri, asking for help as she faced a looming eviction. She was also a domestic violence survivor, and Manley related to her story.
“When my abuse happened, I almost didn’t call the police because I was scared of what it would do to my neighbors’ judgment of me and to the landlords,” Manley said. “I think the consequences for reporting abuse just encourages us to stay silent with our violence.”
About 10 members of KC Tenants showed up to El Dorado Apartments on East 67th Street Monday afternoon when they heard Williams was scheduled to be evicted.
A group from KC Tenants approached the property manager and a contractor with cameras after a sheriff’s deputy pulled up in an unmarked truck.
“Why are you evicting someone in a pandemic,” asked Tara Raghuveer, the director of KC Tenants.
“Because it has nothing to do with finances,” said Cindy, the property manager, who declined to give her last name. Cindy then called police.
Arriving officers pushed past a group of protesters trying to block the entrance to Williams’s apartment. KC Tentants chanted “shame” as the officers opened the door and law enforcement proceeded to evict Williams.
In the process, two of the protesters, including Manley, were handcuffed and put into police cars before they were later released. Williams stood nearby, in tears.
“She’s taking my only safe place away in the whole world away from me. I’m scared,” she said. “I have no car, I have no money. Everything I have is in that apartment.”
Williams, who recently survived a cancer diagnosis, moved into the apartment in August 2019. A voucher program for people with health problems paid for her rent.
Cindy said she evicted Williams because she and the people who came to her apartment were a danger to her neighbors.
Williams said she called police when her abuser, who she has a restraining order against, showed up to her apartment.
“She said I created a police presence that made people feel unsafe, but I’m calling them so I can be safe,” she said, her voice breaking. “She’s using domestic violence against me. She’s helping my abuser win this way, you know, because he got what he wanted and he wants me to have nothing.”
Cindy said police were called to Williams’s apartment 12 times in one year by Williams and her neighbors. She said the sheriff’s department handed Williams an eviction notice about a week ago, after giving her multiple warnings.
“The laws are the laws,” Cindy said. “We didn’t do anything against the law as far as evicting her because of the pandemic or because of discrimination or anything else. It’s a matter of whether you’re a danger to the community or not.”
Raghuveer hears “horrific” stories like Williams’ all the time, she said.
Members of the Raytown Police Department at the scene had offered to help her find a domestic violence shelter to stay at, but Williams said she can’t stay in a communal place because she recently survived cancer and is at higher risk of catching the coronavirus.
“Every eviction is an act of violence,” Raghuveer said, adding that she doesn’t believe any evictions should be carried out during a pandemic. “Every single time we allow an eviction to occur right now, we’re saying we prioritize a landlord’s profits and their property over someone’s life.”
While KC Tenants is not a service organization, Raghuveer said in instances like this, they’ll help find Williams a place to sleep overnight so she won’t have to resort to the streets.
A GoFundMe for Williams raised more than $1,600 by Monday evening.
“We live in the richest country in the history of the world,” Raghuveer said. “How is this the way we’re treating people who are survivors of domestic violence, people who are trying to do right by their neighbors. None of it makes sense and we’re foolish if we think that these individual acts of violence don’t add up to something bigger.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
