MEMPHIS — Leslie Nelson, a 56-year-old Raleigh resident, was evicted from her home of several years Thursday. Nelson, who struggled to breathe while talking to The Commercial Appeal, said she is recovering from COVID-19.Â
She was sick, barely able to stand, she said, as her belongings were being removed from her home and piled on the property’s front yard.
Memphis police officers were on scene at Nelson’s residence Thursday afternoon and told a Commercial Appeal photographer they were only there to keep the peace. The process server, there to oversee the eviction, left just before 3 p.m.
Eviction hearings resumed in Shelby County in mid-June after a months-long hiatus prompted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Ten volunteers had gathered on Nelson’s Raleigh residence to try and move her belongings out of the sun, and to tend to Nelson while also keeping their distance.
The volunteers were summoned by Nelson’s distress calls on Facebook, which were then amplified when Hunter Demster, a community organizer and activist, went to her house and livestreamed her eviction.Â
And before the volunteers, movers or Memphis police cruisers showed up to her residence in the 3300 block of Joslyn Street, Nelson said she had pleaded with a probate attorney for a chance to settle her deceased mother-in-law’s medical bills.
The house was left to Nelson and her partner. She said she has the papers to prove it, and sought ways to repay the medical debt attached to the house. A GoFundMe was started by a friend to help with expenses.Â
“I offered to pay,†Nelson said. “But he didn’t even give me a warning. He just sent movers over here, and they showed up with police officers.â€Â
Nelson tested positive for COVID-19 on June 11. Though she had been been staying at home since the start of the pandemic, she did visit with a friend one day. That friend called her a few days later, saying they thought they had symptoms of heatstroke when they saw Nelson. It wasn’t heatstroke, but COVID-19 at the root of their symptoms.
Just three days after Nelson learned of her friend’s positive status, she became sicker than she could ever remember feeling.
“I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t stand up, I was hallucinating at one point,” Nelson said.
She called for an ambulance, and spent the next several days at Methodist North on oxygen.
She was released a few weeks ago, and had even started to feel like she was turning a corner. But when the process server showed up to her Raleigh residence, she said grew ill from the stress.
Her epilepsy also presented itself in Thursday morning’s chaos. Nelson suffered from a seizure severe enough to cause her to bite her tongue.
Capt. Anthony Buckner with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said no deputies responded to Nelson’s address. SCSO, Buckner said, only handles about 20% of evictions in the county.
The rest are sometimes overseen by the Memphis Police Department, and Nelson said it was MPD officers who threatened arrest as she was being removed from her house.
It’s not immediately clear if Nelson’s eviction is among the 9,000 eviction filings Cindy Ettingoff, CEO and general counsel for the Memphis Area Legal Services, warned The Commercial Appeal about back in June.Â
For now, the group of volunteers are moving Nelson’s belongings into a small rented storage space that someone donated. It’s a start, but it’s not quite enough to hold all her possessions from her house. She does not know where she will stay tonight.
Nelson’s eviction, occurring after she said she was hospitalized with COVID-19, represents an aspect of public health the Shelby County Health Department has signaled concern over — being unhoused and sick with COVID-19.
“This is going to happen again,” Nelson said. “And next time, I want to be the one that shows up to help.”
The Commercial Appeal has reached out to Nelson’s probate attorney for a response.
Follow Micaela A. Watts on Twitter: @megawatts2000
