Richmond County Marshal’s Office conducts nearly 16 evictions a day
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The Richmond County Marshal’s Office is carrying out an average of 16 evictions a day.
This news was shared during this week’s commission meeting, highlighting the dangerous situations they’re entering every day.
It’s also shedding light on the housing issues we’re facing in our area.
The marshal’s office says 16 evictions is the average number they’ve seen going back to the pandemic.
As thousands of families in Richmond County are at risk of eviction, rental assistance is the lifeline helping them through.
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When entering a home to carry out an eviction, Ramone Lamkin with the marshal’s office says, “Eviction is just like a traffic stop. You never know what you’re going to get.”
That’s because oftentimes, they are facing people at their lowest point.
“The only thing they have is being put out on the street,” said Lamkin. “We had some aggressive evictions. We had some standoffs before. We had to use the SWAT team to do it. We had to have different tactics to go in and get people sometimes. So, some people just don’t want to go.”
On top of 16 evictions per day for the Richmond County Marshal’s Office, Lamkin says, “We do have a real big log of evictions. And right now, we’re running about two to three weeks behind because we have so many evictions.”
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The reason behind each eviction varies, but the one constant is the need for resources.
Brittany Burnett, president and CEO of United Way of the CSRA, said: “As a community, we’re working towards finding some more solutions. But as of today, there’s just not enough. We’re at a major housing crunch in our community.”
It doesn’t help many are still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
“We’ve had to anticipate and wait to see what landlords are doing to know what the impact is going to be on our community because we didn’t know at the time and I don’t know if all landlords knew what they were going to do with their tenants,” said Burnett. “If some landlords are like, nope, you’re late or after day five, you’ve got ridiculous late fees and then now here’s the eviction, then no wonder you’re seeing 16 a day.”
If you or someone you know needs assistance, United Way says the easiest thing to do is call 211 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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