Woman in Baltimore Unable to Go Home During Pandemic, Because of Squatter
I’ve been silent about something during the whole pandemic, but it’s time to open up. I’ve been following the conventional wisdom about not discussing legal matters publicly, but with COVID related court closings causing delay after delay, I need to say this. I have been unable to go home. I’ve been couch surfing in my partner’s home for 9 months, because an abuser has driven me out of my own home, and he will not leave.
Some people in Baltimore may remember me from about 10 years ago. It will become clear why I’m going back this far, so bear with me. As a member of Friends of The Senator, I served a dual role of advocating for the preservation of the historic Senator Theatre, while also honoring the legacy of the former owner’s efforts, and trying to protect him from what I saw as an abuse of power against him. I don’t regret caring about the beautiful theater, or trying to protect someone from abuse. What I do regret is my failure to see clearly the former owner’s role in his own downfall, and my participation in his blaming of others. I regret any pain my actions may have cause others in the community. I’m sorry. To quote Monty Python, “I apologize for that, but I think you’ll find this a bit more interesting.”
After former Senator owner Thomas Kiefaber lost his business and his home, I thought it was unfair that he would become homeless after serving the community for many years. About 2 years after he lost the theater, I invited him into my home. I was trying to give him a chance to get back on his feet. I regret this most of all.
Cut to 2020. Mr. Kiefaber is living in my basement. He hasn’t worked in over a decade. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t looked for work in over a decade. When he first lost the theater, he had people willing to hire him, but he preferred to nurse his wounds. He’s been nursing them for over a decade, while his mental health has steadily deteriorated. He’s been in and out of legal trouble, and as far as I know, he is still on probation for malicious destruction of property and breaking and entering: crimes he committed against his own sister.
What has Mr. Kiefaber been doing to fill his time, if he hasn’t been working? You may ask. The answer is, he’s been indoctrinating himself into a far right, alternate reality conspiracy world, and posting irrational rants on facebook. In these rants, he periodically calls for the deaths of public figures he disagrees with. He has often expressed sympathy for known white supremacists, and reveled in misogyny. Mr. Kiefaber would undoubtedly claim that he is not a racist and does not hate women, but I beg to differ. “FAKE NEWS!” He might scream, in response.
The other thing Mr. Kiefaber has been doing to fill his time is endlessly modifying my garden, and sometimes my house, and bringing home other people’s discarded items that he finds in the alleyways, junking up my property. His endless projects started with me asking for a little help maintaining the pond in my backyard, but they quickly devolved into endless modifications, which I never gave him permission for, and endless piles of junk he claimed to have some use for. I lost the use of my own backyard at least 4 years ago.
His endless unauthorized modifications have included digging up and killing almost all of the plants that I originally had in my garden, switching out the back basement door for one that I do not have a key to, and putting a kitchenette into the basement for his own use, which I still haven’t even seen. He has been expressly forbidden, in writing, 4 times in 2020, from continuing to make modifications to my property. The most recent changes, after these written notices, have been stripping the paint off my front door in preparation for painting it, painting the basement steps, and sticking a couple of 2 x 4s up under the siding on the back of my house, thereby causing the siding to stick out from the wall by about 5 or 6 inches at the bottom, and creating a funnel for rodents and cold air to get into my kitchen walls.
I’ve been asking him to move for over 4 years. He has ignored every request, hint, and written notice. I have chronic pain from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and it severely impacts my ability to work and make a living. I’ve been working as hard as I am able all this time, while Mr. Kiefaber has been sitting around listening to conspiracy theory internet broadcasts, and deciding whether or not he can spare any money for his rent that month. The stress has been slowly killing me, and I have informed Mr. Kiefaber, on several occasions, that I can barely afford my mortgage. The last time I told him that, around October 2019, I raised the rent on him. That was when he decided to stop paying me almost completely. At this point, he is delinquent since January.
Around the first of this year, I concluded that he will never leave, unless he is escorted out by the sheriff. In February, I psyched myself up for what I knew would be a long battle ahead, and told him I was about to start the legal process of having him removed from my property. After this, he ranted, raved, cursed, muttered, screamed and shouted obscenities for 3 weeks solid. I got little to no sleep for 3 weeks, and at the end of this time, I had a nervous breakdown and fled my home, afraid for my life. I filed a peace order against him, but then the pandemic shutdown hit. The courts closed, the peace order was never served, and there was a moratorium on evictions. Since March 12th, I have never been inside my own home without an escort.
Finally, at the end of July, 2020, when the CARES act eviction moratorium ended, my attorney sent him a 60 day notice to vacate, which is all the legal notice that Baltimore City requires. He ignored that notice too, and as of now, he is still living in my basement. I was supposed to have a hearing about his failure to vacate the property on December 7. With the toll from the virus spiking again, the District Court has now closed again, and postponed all such hearings indefinitely.
I can’t take much more of this, so I have decided to speak out. Being away from my home, with a person I can’t trust in the basement, during the pandemic, has been an absolute torture. It has been impossible to focus on much else.
My small eBay store has taken a big hit from the pandemic, with my vintage jewelry sales down by about 60%. I had to move my small business to a temporary location. I have to completely rethink my business now, since it will not survive in its current form. I can’t even focus on that. Although our mail carrier has been extremely helpful, I have been unable to reliably get my mail. I have had several temporary forwarding orders expire. I was unsure whether I would get my stimulus check, or other important mail. I can’t be sure that I’m not missing important notices or bills.
Mr. Kiefaber has more income than I do, in the form of a monthly government check; he also has occasional income from his 1/4 share in a million dollar commercial property. But every time he is reminded that he has to move, he pleads poverty, and makes it clear that he expects me to provide him charity. He has turned me into an economic hostage, and put me at risk of losing my home.
I have had enough. I am outing this abuser.
