Samantha Calvaresi, a 38-year-old single mom, is scrambling to build up awareness for her predicament after being recently evicted from her Carson City Parkway Plaza three bedroom apartment with her three kids and a grandchild, from messaging HUD, to starting a Facebook page called the Section 8 files, to working on a gofundme and videos for a new TikTok channel.
When Our Town Reno spoke to her, she said she was now living in Fallon with her mom and her kids, who are eight, 16 and 18, and her grandchild who is an infant.
“It’s just, very, very, heavy on the heart. And now I'm staying in my mom's little tiny RV with my cousin and my kids and my mom. Very tight quarters, but it's family,” she said of her living situation.
In her Section 8 Files Facebook page she blames the Nevada Rural Housing Authority, HUD, her former landlord, judges and the housing voucher program for abandoning her.
She says she was taken off her voucher which was covering her entire rent due to a slight mistake in Social Security numbers in her file, with one her kid’s numbers inverted, a mistake she alleges ultimately led to her being thrown out, despite her many attempts to fix the situation.
Katie Coleman, the Communications Director for Nevada Rural Housing, wrote back to Our Town Reno indicating: “We cannot provide specifics on any client case. What’s important to note is that Nevada Rural Housing follows all processes and HUD regulations to ensure full program compliance. This thorough work is done to ensure the federal program’s integrity and our ability to continue to deliver it successfully to qualifying rural Nevadans.”
Calvaresi says the first notice she received that her voucher was being terminated came through Nevada Rural Housing in September. She says there’s since been a delayed grievance hearing, an ongoing judicial review and a notice saying she owed over $3,000, followed by more court action, and being 86ed from the property she used to live on earlier this month.
She says she was told to take what she wanted by 4 p.m. that day but in a hurry and without having her own car it wasn’t much.
She can go back in a few weeks but will be charged if she wants anything back.
She received a letter from attorney William A. Baker outlining the court order of eviction effective March 13th, with a warning that all remaining personal property will be disposed of 30 days later. “They may seek cost of removal of all these items from you and or any third party under Nevada law. They can sell my property to recover cleaning and removal costs,” the letter she read out indicates.
Calvaresi has struggled with poverty for years and was previously on unemployment benefits from her previous work as a flagger. An article about her when she was 22 in the Nevada Appeal indicated she surrendered to police in 2009 on a felony warrant for suspicion of writing checks with insufficient funds.
She wrote back to us saying it was for checks she didn’t have enough money for in her bank account, and that she’s never been in jail for more than two days. “It was my own fault, got dropped to a misdemeanor,” she wrote about what happened in 2009.
Calvaresi was hoping her life was getting back on track but now feels the system that once helped her has now thrown her into full on frustration.