‘Barbaric to do that’: Landlord accused of cutting off El Paso tenant’s electricity during pandemic

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EL PASO, Texas -- The Texas Supreme Court halted eviction proceedings statewide on March 19 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But that moratorium expired Tuesday and one northeast El Paso woman said she's already on the receiving end of the backlash, saying her landlord has shut off her utilities after she lost her job due to the virus and couldn't afford to pay her rent.

Rosa Hernandez sums up what's happened to her: No money, no rent, no electricity.

The Texas Apartment Association is weighing in, saying landlords should work with tenants during these hard times, not cut off their power.

ABC-7 asked a representative of Horsman Properties, the management team listed on Hernandez’s lease, if they cut the power off or if it was the electric company. But that conversation ended abruptly with no further comment.

So ABC-7 reached out to the Texas Apartment Association, who said it has never heard of a property manager doing that to a tenant.

Right now, Hernandez is steaming mad, both because she has no air conditioning and because she feels she’s being bullied.

“I make wedding cakes, quinceñera cakes. I haven’t been able to open because social gathering is not allowed,” said Hernandez as she wiped the sweat off her neck.

Conditions inside her apartment were blistering hot because there is no air conditioning running.

Covid-19 is taking this cake baker’s source of income. She’s accustomed to spending days in front of an oven baking, not baking inside her apartment.

She says because she’s two months behind on her rent, her property manager shut off her electricity, and it happened just was she was celebrating a small victory.

“I just got my food stamps. You know, I didn’t have any food. And I got my food stamps and I bought all my groceries and they’re going to go bad,” said Hernandez.

A spokesman for the El Paso Apartment Association says 6,000 renters, like Hernandez, are reaching out to apartment managers telling them they can’t pay their rent because they have no income.

“They can’t pay because of Covid-19. Either they’ve lost their job, they have a temporary job, or they’ve lost wages. We’re working with these families, we have a payment plan,” said Demetrio Jimenez of the El Paso Apartment Association.

Hernandez says she’s tried working with her property manager, but was told she either came up with rent, or utilities would be cut off. It's a promise Hernandez says the property manager made good on.

Asked if the El Paso Apartment Association condones the practice of turning off electricity on a tenant, Jimenez responded:

“Absolutely not. We’ve encouraged our membership to work with those families that are going through this hardship because of Covid-19. We’re, you know, there’s gonna be bad players out there. It's pretty barbaric to do that.”

“I think its terrible, I think he’s being a bully. I think we're all in this, we’re all suffering.” Rosa said.

Jimenez says renters are also taking a loss during these times, they too have bills to pay.

So far, Project Vida has agreed to help Hernandez with April’s rent.

Of course, the paperwork will take time.So for now, she sits inside a steamy apartment, hoping she can start earning money to pay her rent, and get the electricity back on.

Supporters of Rosa Hernandez have now started a fundraising effort on her behalf on Facebook. You can donate by clicking here.

As of late Tuesday night, thanks to the generosity of ABC-7 viewers, enough money had been raised to pay the back rent and utility bills; now organizers say they'll try to raise enough extra to cover rent for another month or two for the unemployed Hernandez.