Rebel constables help tenants stay in their homes during COVID
On a warm November afternoon, Kristen Randall, a red-haired woman in a blue button-down shirt, knocked at the door of a rundown apartment in Tucson’s East Midtown neighborhood. After three rounds of patient knocking, a woman named Angie Bevins opened the door.
Randall identified herself as a Pima County constable, a court-mandated officer tasked with enforcing evictions. A sudden tension washed over Bevins, who stood behind a metal screen door that was frayed at the edges. She had been dreading the day she would be forced out of her apartment. She said her landlord had warned her that this would happen.
In a subdued voice, Bevins told Randall that she had written to the landlord, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium order, a temporary halt in evictions “to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.” Man Tran, Bevins’s landlord, filed in court to have Bevins evicted despite the CDC order, justifying it because Bevins is a subletter. Bevins showed Randall the letter she’d written.
