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Michigan family says they’re out on the street after struggling to pay rent amid COVID-19 outbreak

Family says landlord threatened to re-key house

DETROIT – Martee Parks and his wife Sheila Parks are sharing a similar story with thousands nationwide -- it’s the 5th of the month and time is running out to pay rent.

READ: Michigan Gov. Whitmer signs executive order temporarily suspending evictions

“Landlord is demanding money,” Martee Parks said.

Except in this situation, the couple say that they were forced to leave after not being able to pay in the middle of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“We ended up giving him the keys and saying we were gonna take our stuff out of there when he said he was gonna re-key the house and put everything out,” Martee Parks said.

Although Martee Parks is still fortunate to be working, his hours have been cut, making the task of paying bills on time so much harder. However, they believe they couldn’t have rightfully been evicted because of the current Moratorium on evictions statewide.

The two have several children and neither have yet to received stimulus check or any form of unemployment.

“We got three kids and they’re basically out here on the street right now,” Martee Parks said.

Of course, he’s hoping for an end to all of this madness, but is considering legal action in the future.

“I would like to see him at least help us move into another place or have him make another place available for us,” Martee Parks said.

Local 4 reached out to the landlord to see if they would comment. At the time of this article’s publication, no one has returned any calls.


About the Author
Victor Williams headshot

Victor Williams joined Local 4 News in October of 2019 after working for WOIO in Cleveland, OH, WLOX News in Biloxi, MS, and WBBJ in Jackson, TN. Victor developed a love for journalism after realizing he was a great speaker and writer at an early age.

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