Kim Moore is a 41-year-old pharmacy technician and mother of three who is stuck with a $2,016 water bill.
On an annual income of $20,000, she can’t afford to pay it. And she is not alone. Dozens of other tenants at the city-run Townes at the Terraces apartment complex in East Baltimore are facing eviction due to thousands of dollars of unpaid water bills.
“I didn’t receive any bills for four years, and now they want us to pay everything or they’re threatening us with eviction,” said Moore standing outside her home. “It doesn’t seem right.”
Moore’s problems began in 2006, when the Edgewood management company told her to sign an addendum to her lease requiring her to pay for water used in her two-bedroom home. “We had to sign this or we couldn’t stay,” Moore said.
After signing the addendum, Moore and dozens of other residents began receiving past-due water bills, some as high as $4,600, according to records reviewed by The Examiner. Along with the bills came a demand to pay or vacate.
“It’s unfair to the people who live here, they’re low income people,” said Moore. “Some are senior citizens. We’re all scared, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Eviction notices were mailed in August threatening to terminate leases of about 50 residents unless water bills are paid by Sept. 10.
City Councilman Bernard “Jack” Young, D-District 12, who recently worked to pass legislation giving water customers the ability to work out payment plans on past-due balances, called the letters, “absurd.”
“Nobody wants to see someone get evicted, we need to bring people into the city not push them out,” he said. “We have programs in place to help people work out payment plans with the water department.”
Water department spokesman Kurt Kocher said, “This is not in our hands. This is housing’s issue.”
Housing officials did not return calls for comment.
Evergreen management spokesman George Caruso said everyone is given a chance to go through the judicial process and they are working on payment plans with tenants.
Rosa Nelson, 58, said she owes more than $3,800 in water bills. “I didn’t receive a bill for four years, how am I going to pay this?” she asked. “We don’t know what we’re going to do.”
