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Belle Glade residents fear eviction after new property owners take over

'Sometimes it just makes you want to cry,' resident says
A resident in the 700 block of West Avenue A in Belle Glade on June 13, 2022.jpg
Posted at 4:51 PM, Jun 13, 2022
and last updated 2022-06-13 17:36:13-04

BELLE GLADE, Fla. — People living in an apartment building in Belle Glade are being forced out of their homes after new property owners took over. Some residents have no place to go and are worried the building will get destroyed before they can get out.

Jeffery Weston showed WPTV around an apartment building off the 700 block of West Avenue A in Belle Glade on Monday.

At least a dozen people are still living here after they were given notices to move out nearly a month ago when a new owner was deeded the property.

Some have left, but others still remain because they have no money and nowhere else to go.

Now they are worried about the building being condemned and knocked down before they can get out.

"Every house and apartment you go to is over $600," Weston said. "We can't afford to pay that kind of money. We struggled hard enough trying to do what we had to do and stayed in an apartment. But you're out there in the street and what can you do? We got put out of the building here, and then you got no where to live. These guys need help and I need it."

"We try to find somewhere to live, but what happens, it just doesn't turn up," said resident Vincent Grant.

"The situation that we're in, we don't want to be in this situation," resident Latonya Canty said. "But we're trying to move and stuff, but ain't no place around here. Then the money part, because you know they're going up on everything."

"Every tenant remaining in this building is going to be facing an eviction this week," Jacob Beychok, the lead attorney in the eviction program for the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, told WPTV.

Beychok is representing most of the tenants here and said the conditions many were living in should have been addressed with the previous landlord.

Beychok said the new owner has not been willing to give them time or the help for relocation.

"His words to me were, they need to find somewhere else to go. Whether that be shelters, churches, friends. Things that really aren’t realistic for a lot of these people, so that’s why people are still here and in the same situation," Beychok said.

County officials said they are aware of the situation and especially the living conditions in the building.

"Our homeless resources team has been working with the residents in this building and assisting any of them that want our assistance in finding them replacement housing," Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said.

If push comes to shove, Weston doesn’t want to end up on the street if he can’t find any housing.

"Sometimes it just makes you want to cry. Cry between things to do what you have to do," Weston said.

WPTV reached out to the attorney representing the new property owners for comment, but has not heard back.