Untimely eviction letters leave tenants fearful in Ripley Tennessee

RIPLEY, Tenn. (WMC) - Lots of fear, chaos, and confusion is permeating as tenants in Ripley, Tennessee fear the worst after receiving eviction notices without as much as a stern warning.

Action News 5 spoke with several people who live in Rolling Hills and Ripley Terrance apartments and they all are stricken with both terror and uncertainty as they scramble to find new places to call home.

“You never know when you going to get...and you can barely sleep because you don’t know. That’s not right,” said Jamesha Balton, a Rolling Hills tenant.

The apartments are not just simple abodes for these residents. For many of them, it is the only thing standing between them and a life of rigid poverty or homelessness.

“We are already poor enough and we live on monthly income, and that doesn’t take care of us. And now you’re going to evict us, put us on the streets homeless with nowhere to go. What kind of people are you? That’s a hypocrite to me because y’all say y’all Christians y’all full of s***, said Joyce Grimes, another Rolling Hills tenant.

Tenants from Rolling Hills and Ripley Terrance got a notice last Friday from the property owners, Hallmark companies, to leave immediately. They all say it’s unfair, especially with current living conditions.

“The city of Ripley code enforcement told us that we could not do any work until we vacated the whole entire property. This is not us. I am more than willing to give all y’all a copy of it,” said Candy Jones, regional manager of Hallmark companies

She says it’s not the company that’s telling people to get out, but the city of Ripley itself.

In that court order, it says the current conditions happened over a period of time and the owners knew of it and didn’t fix it in a timely manner, therefore the properties must be completely vacated for residential purposes until things can be fixed.

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