DeKalb woman, facing eviction from home of 27 years, may buy it
Juliet Brown received an eviction notice after renting her home for 27 years. Now she is raising money to buy it.
Stephannie Stokes / WABE
A DeKalb County woman, once at risk of eviction, may be able to stay in her home of 27 years.
Juliet Brown’s case became the focus of a campaign by Housing Justice League. The group held a press conference this past fall outside her small brick home near Glenwood Road.
Speaking from her lawn, Brown said the eviction notice was an embarrassment. She didn’t live a life like that. She’s a 64-year-old woman who works in nutrition for DeKalb County Schools.
Brown held out hope she could stay even with the pending eviction.
“I am expecting to be here because I don’t have nowhere to live,” Brown said at the time.
A new owner had recently bought her home. The eviction notice said she had stayed beyond the terms of her lease.
But in the eviction hearing in November, the landlord agreed to make a deal with Brown: she could remain in the house if she could raise enough money to buy it. Her landlord hasn’t responded to WABE’s requests.
“I was excited,” Brown said in a phone interview this week. “I knew I had to maintain but I was excited and overwhelmed because it was a lot that I had to go through.”
She still has a ways to go.
Housing Justice League is hoping to get enough donations to cover half the cost of the home, which is $160 thousand dollars. The group has pulled together $35,000 so far.
It’s planning a fundraising event on Jan. 14 at Cultivate Food and Coffee.
Brown said she’s grateful for the help that got her to this point. This would be her first time owning a home.
Asked how long she would stay, she responded, “Until I die.”
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