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HEMET --- Renters on
one street in Hemet are being forced out of their apartments after the
buildings were foreclosed upon.
The 16 fourplexes along both sides of Mobley Lane just aren't selling
-- not even at auctions. The owners want to board them up and shut them
down. But, they're occupied, and many tentans don't have anywhere to go.
Banks have been paying some renters up to $5,000 to move out. Others have received 30-day eviction notices without any payment.
Dollie Ellinger says she accepted a $2,500 offer to leave, but she
can't afford to stay in California. Luckily, she says, her
ex-mother-in-law in Chicago is taking her in. She feels for her
neighbors who aren't as fortunate.
"Everyone is panicking, a lot of people don't have anywhere to go because they're on fixed incomes," she told KTLA.
She says she has no sympathy for the apartment owners.
"They didn't pay their bills. Eventhough we were paying ours, they weren't paying theirs."
Ellinger says many residents are getting their final rent payments back, and their deposits returned.
Another renter told KTLA that she was not getting any money back. In
fact, she says she had to pay rent for this month and is in the process
of moving out.
She also claimed the threat of foreclosure came up about a year or two
ago. She said the owners told tenants not to worry and that they would
not be evicted.
Calls to the apartment owners were not immediately returned.
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