Elderly woman facing eviction has more time, help

An elderly woman in Colorado Springs facing eviction has more time and several people offering help.

Annabelle, 72, lives at the Cedar Creek Club Apartments. She asked us not to use her last name. On Monday, she was told she would be evicted the next morning. Instead, she received a court summons for Thursday.

At the court hearing, the judge asked her if she was willing to move, and she said yes. In an eviction process, a landlord must obtain a Writ of Restitution from the courthouse. It is available 48 hours after a hearing. In Annabelle’s case, that would fall on a weekend, so the earliest she could be evicted is Monday.

She hopes to move out before that day. After her story aired, many people have offered their help.

“It’s actually been wonderful,” she said. “And I do thank everybody that’s offered things, stepped up and done things.”

She said she hopes for a safe, comfortable, bug-free place.

She said the problems at Cedar Creek began over bugs.

“We’ve gone back and forth. This place has bugs on top of everything else,” she said. “I had to bring in a lot of my mother’s stuff that was in boxes. It was in this room, and they kept saying that that was attracting the bugs. Well, I didn’t bring any bugs.”

Annabelle said she regularly received pest control notices at her door.

“They would send me notices (saying) do this or that, which I did, and then it would be quiet, nobody would say anything, and then suddenly they’d come back and start the whole thing over again.”

When her lease ended last December, she was told it wouldn’t be renewed. She stayed at the apartment and was taken to court. She was on the losing end and received an eviction notice shortly after.

She said she hasn’t been able to find a place she can afford. On top of that, she has health problems that keep her from being able to search for a place. She has heart failure, she’s anemic and she’s on oxygen 24/7. She said she has no family and her friends have no room for her, so that isn’t an option.

As of Thursday, she had plans to see an affordable apartment someone who saw her story offered her.