Can’t pay rent after ICE arrest – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

(WSVN) – A South Florida woman’s husband was picked up by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is being deported. Now, like so many others, she can’t afford the rent. Can she break the lease or perhaps get a lower monthly payment? It’s why she called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.

She asked us not to identify her.

Patrick Fraser: “You did nothing wrong.”

Lolita: “I’m sorry, but it’s just very embarrassing to me.”

Lolita, as we will call her, is facing a major change in her life, after ICE arrested her husband.

Lolita: “He was almost crying because, you know, he had a life. Not only him, thousands of people that have taken, they have a life.”

Now the man who left Cuba 20 years ago to gain freedom is locked up, first at “Alligator Alcatraz” and now at a prison in Texas.

Lolita: “He didn’t want to tell me, but he had to sleep on the floor for 20 days or so.”

Her husband didn’t follow U.S. immigration laws. Lolita is an American citizen but doesn’t believe his punishment is right.

Lolita: “If they’re doing the right thing, if they’re working, I mean, why? It’s not fair, it’s not just.”

But its legal, and the financial effects are now hitting now Lolita.

Lolita: “Like I have that credit card problem. I’m not able to make the payments.”

Her husband was the breadwinner. Lolita only has a small Social Security check, and can’t afford the rent on their apartment.

Lolita: “I’m a nervous wreck.”

They lived in federal subsidized housing, where rent is based on income.

Lolita went to the manager to explain her husband and his paycheck were gone forever.

Lolita: “He has to come here and sign these papers so we can finish getting him off the lease.”

Of course, he can’t come in to sign anything since he is in a prison in Texas.

Lolita: “I just want them to do the right thing, you know, just lower the rent.”

And while she waits for a manager to determine her fate, she talks to other people like her, who lost a family member.

Lolita: “She talked to me for an hour and she’s devastated. She has a year old, seven year old.”

You can’t see her face, but she has no idea how she will survive, without her husband.

Lolita: “I don’t know, I do not know at all.”

Lolita will deal with the future tomorrow. The present is today.

And if you are in a lease, can you break it or get the rent lowered in a situation like this? Howard?

Howard: “In almost all cases you cannot break a lease or have your rent lowered because of a family member being arrested by ICE. However, in some situations where the government subsidizes your rent, there is a clause in the lease that allows a reduction in rent if one of the income producers loses their job, dies or gets arrested and that should be done for Lolita.”

I contacted the property manager. She didn’t return my calls.

But Lolita produced this document plus a letter showing her husband was in ICE custody and would not be returning.

That did it. Lolita then got a new lease, with the rent lowered to a price she can afford.

Lolita: “Yes, they did. Yes, they did.”

As we met with Lolita, she made coffee for us, because something her husband had said in their last conversation.

Lolita: “I miss my coffee, my cafe con leche.”

Lolita says she will get by, but she worries more about other families who had their breadwinner taken away.

Lolita: “And you see a lot of people that have small children, which must be much, much worse.”

It’s a strange, difficult time for people like Lolita.

And the irony, after deporting her husband, the U.S. Government will now have to pay more to help her with her rent.

Will she instead follow her husband when he is deported, she says she doesn’t know because of her bad health. Clearly, she’s overwhelmed right now.

A problem depressed you? Need to be lifted up? Send it to us to improve your spirits.

With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser 7News.

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