Longs SC mom, disabled daughter facing eviction after unsafe home led to injury
Shanekia Grissett’s calm demeanor belies the stressful nature of her latest crisis, akin to how the sweet scent of the manadarin cranberry candle she’s lit masks her home’s countless blemishes.
There is black mold blooming on the walls in her bathroom, exposed electrical wires and the frame of the front door is falling apart. The strike plate is worn out, making the locked door feel questionable at times.
Grissett had high hopes moving in 2019 into the 3-bedroom trailer in Longs with her daughter, Chloe, now 10, who suffers from a rare neurological disorder that prevents her from walking, talking or eating on her own. The landlord had promised to install a ramp, she said, to make it easier for her to move Chloe in and out of the house, but that never happened.
Instead, the 42-year-old single mother has watched these issues exacerbate while her landlord ignores her pleas for repairs, she said.
“I constantly say, ‘Hey this just needs to be fixed,’ and it never gets fixed,” Grissett said. “I was like, ‘Somebody’s going to get hurt.’”
That fear came to fruition in May, when her daughter’s in-home nurse tripped over a hole in the floor and fractured her femur.
Then her landlord, Lenoris Willard, who was warned he may be facing a lawsuit, filed to evict Grissett.
Facing eviction
An Horry County judge ruled in Grissett’s favor last week — she wasn’t behind on rent payments and didn’t violate any written agreement — but since she didn’t have an active lease, the judge told Willard he could give her a written 30-day notice to vacate, which he did. Grissett has until Aug. 20 to leave or face formal eviction proceedings, the letter states.
Willard hung up on a Sun News reporter when asked why he was trying to evict Grissett. After the reporter texted Willard the accusations against him related to his failure to fix issues in the home, he responded that there are “2 sides to every story” and “there are rules and regulations when you don’t follow them it’s consequences.” He did not respond when asked what rule or regulation Grissett violated.
Grissett, now fearing homelessness, said she’s unsure what to do next.
“I’ve been, you know, looking to try to figure out if I want to just move to somewhere else, pay rent or, like, buy, but, like, I can’t save enough money to buy because I’m trying to keep bills here afloat,” she said, adding she’s unlikely to find another rental property in the area as affordable as her current $750 monthly payment.
Grissett works two jobs as a patient service representative and substitute teacher while attending school to get a psychology degree, but she’s occasionally had to skip work and school recently to take care of Chloe without any available in-home nurses in the area.
Is this illegal retaliation?
Karon Kiser, the nurse who suffered the fractured femur in the home, told The Sun News she was teaching another nurse’s aide about Chloe’s nighttime routine when her toe caught on the linoleum. She had to spend 11 days in the hospital and has been unable to work at all since.
Kiser said the condition of Grissett’s home is “by far” the worst of any where she’s ever worked and doesn’t think it’s fair that Willard appears to be retaliating against Grissett due to a potential lawsuit that’s his fault for failing to address known issues. She noted any lawsuit she filed would actually be against his insurance carrier.
Mark Fessler, head of the housing unit for South Carolina Legal Services, said he’s never come across this particular set of circumstances — where a landlord allegedly targets a tenant for eviction due to a lawsuit from another party — but it doesn’t appear to be covered by retaliation protections in South Carolina’s Landlord and Tenant Act. The act prohibits landlords from evicting or raising the rent of a tenant in response to a tenant’s complaints of housing code violations, Fessler explained.
“That might be a gap in the law,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s not a legal remedy for all moral wrongs.”
Lifetime of struggles
Kiser said the worst part of her injuries is not being there for Chloe, who she described as smart, funny and adorable.
“She’ll be sitting there and just burst out laughing,” Kiser said.
Grissett gingerly dabs the side of Chloe’s mouth to wipe off drool as she sits on the couch watching television beside her teddy bear, J.D.
The bear’s name is short for Ja’Darius, Grissett’s son, who died suddenly from an undiagnosed brain tumor when he was 14. Last week, on the same day Grissett went to court to fight her eviction, marked the eight-year anniversary of his death.
“He was a mama’s boy,” Grissett said, after turning down the lights to let Chloe nap. “He was a smart kid, humble, respectful. He’s had so much going for him, you know, that he wanted to do in life.
“I wanted to raise my kids and to give them what I didn’t have.”
Grissett herself was placed in foster care when she was 8 years old, and said her composure in situations like this come from a lifetime of struggles and taking care of others, including her foster care siblings.
“I always had to be strong, but I’m tired of being strong,” she said. “I want to not be Superwoman anymore.”
