Investigate the metro Atlanta city that forcibly evicted & endangered residents for their "safety"

I'm not usually much of a petitioning person; but I’m struggling here.??

I like to get stuff done. I believe in equal opportunity, and I also believe in the rule of law… especially the laws that create equal opportunity.??

But I’m confronting a situation where, in order to get something done, I need help from other people on this one who are a lot more powerful than I am.?

I created PadSplit for the people who serve our communities: the ones who work at your grocery stores, around the airport, at the hospitals and restaurants, and in our local schools. I thought that anyone working full-time (or more) in these jobs deserved at least an opportunity for a decent place to live, where they could save money, and ultimately have a shot to achieve whatever goals they’re striving for.??

Apparently that’s a really controversial idea.

In my decades in the housing industry, I’ve learned the only way to quickly provide affordable opportunities involves moving people in together, which is prohibited in most U.S. cities. So we fight the outdated zoning laws that ultimately prevent equal opportunity.? We expect to fight, we expect to lose sometimes, and we expect to keep fighting until we win.??

In the middle of fighting one of these zoning battles in Morrow, GA, I witnessed the most egregious and reckless abuse of power I’ve ever seen. On August 17th, the City effectively weaponized the authority of the fire marshal, forcibly evicting every resident from three separate homes that were on the PadSplit platform under the auspices of “safety.”

Let’s forget for a moment that the same city had denied basic trash services for any of these properties for over a year.??

Let’s forget that there were pending municipal court cases for the same 3 houses for zoning-related issues scheduled to be heard five days later.?

Let’s forget the numerous eye-witness accounts of other City officials who were heard stating that they wanted all the PadSplits out of the City.??

Let’s forget that the mayor of this City was previously indicted on 16 felony counts, some involving fire code.

Instead, let’s go ahead and believe that these residents were forced from their homes immediately, with no prior notice and no plans for any future housing, or coordination of housing assistance, because City officials were deeply concerned for their “safety.”

Let’s go ahead and believe that a fire marshal, deeply concerned with the structural integrity of these buildings, with resident safety foremost in his mind, would force his way into occupied bedrooms with a crowbar, using enough force to crack the door frames and send pieces of wood flying across the room.?

Let’s go ahead and believe that resident safety was also foremost in the minds of City employees as they hammered plywood over the only windows in each bedroom and shut off power and water, while most residents were still inside packing their things, now in pitch black darkness with no means of secondary egress if there were actually an emergency situation.

Perhaps we should also be expected to believe that resident safety was the City’s primary motive regarding Christopher, a diabetic, disabled resident who was at a medical appointment when all his belongings, medication, and food were boarded up inside the home without power. (See his interview here.)

Should we also believe that they were concerned about the safety of Jerralynn, an airport employee who had previously been homeless before moving to a PadSplit, and now ended up spending an entire week living on a park bench behind Wendy’s while she waited on her next paycheck???

Or how about Lonnie, a delivery truck driver who was forced to sleep in that same truck for two nights because he didn’t know what else to do?

Or Rickey, a 61 year-old who works at the local hospital, who was building savings for retirement, and has now dipped back into that retirement savings to pay for a hotel room for more than 10 days?

Or Morgan, who asked the fire marshal how she could be expected to just wander down the street with all her stuff without any form of transportation and nowhere to go.

So what was the immediate danger to safety that required forcible and immediate eviction, boarding up of the home, and removal of all utilities?

Was there a gas leak? No

Fire or fire damage? Nope.

Electrical hazard? None.

Were all three houses in danger of imminent collapse?? Absolutely not.?

I expected that perhaps I was the one missing something, and I wanted to see the “unsafe conditions” for myself, to confirm whether the company I’d created really had gone so far astray that we were endangering our members by providing access to these homes.? What I found were smoke detectors easily visible in every bedroom but one.? Fully charged fire extinguishers in every kitchen. Fully charged, automatic fire suppression devices over every stove. Working GFCI outlets in every kitchen. Each bedroom that comfortably met the size, height, & window specifications required by HUD.?

After my tour, my interviews with former residents, and my review of the history here, I simply cannot believe that the forcible eviction of residents from these homes had anything to do with their safety.? The only logical conclusion I can reach is that this was the coordinated effort of a City that weaponized their fire marshal to remove residents and shut down homes by any means necessary, without any regard for their personal safety, their mental health, or their constitutional rights of privacy, due process, or equal protections.?

Fortunately, a Clayton County Superior Court Judge agreed, issuing a temporary restraining order against the City of Morrow, ordering them to return the properties to their original condition and allowing the residents to return. Unsurprisingly, very few of these residents want to return to a place where they know they know their safety will actually be imperiled… by the City of Morrow.

Please join me in requesting that the appropriate authorities investigate the City’s actions that clearly violated state and federal laws. We have pre-drafted a letter for you, so this will take less than 30 seconds of your time to help the people who were forcibly removed from their homes, lost many of their possessions and who are simply trying to live their lives.

Sign the petition to send to your elected officials here.