-I can't say, "Oh, I hate doing evictions,
I don't want to do evictions,"
when I'm out here doing evictions every day.
-I don't think of myself as homeless.
Society does.
-Virginia has 5 of the top
10 highest evicting cities in the country.
-Sheriff's office. Anybody home?
-Watch your back.
-We were given a date for eviction.
-Yes, you was given the date for today.
-Yes.
-But someone called on the 8th and cancelled the eviction.
Miss Burton, I'm going out. Same thing.
If anybody don't have their things, same routine.
Just transfer to me.
Any questions, you can still call me.
Y'all have a nice day. See you.
All right, Miss Turner.
In some jurisdictions, they might get 34 whole months.
If that, we probably get 50.
Average about between 40 and 50 a day.
How many we doing?
-We're doing 14. -Okay.
-We're not knocking on your door, puppy.
-Sheriff's office. Anybody home?
-How did I get into doing this?
It's totally different than what I thought.
I thought civil process, to be honest with you,
I was just gonna get these papers, put them on the door,
and go on about my business.
I was gonna post papers and go, post papers and go.
I had no idea the severity of evictions.
Oh.
You keep talking about them evictions.
-Everybody being noticed. -Yeah.
I'm sorry, sir.
That's what I was like, man.
You got to take your feelings out of it.
I've evicted friends, I've evicted family.
I don't love doing them, but it's a job.
It's my job.
Man.
-That's different 'cause I was just gonna do intensive in-home
for him and skill building for Brittany.
-Okay. Let me show you something.
Let's say, for instance, I checked into the Quality
Inn North over here.
There's three generations here that are being affected.
And I've been to agencies before that could house
one person, two, three people, but not a family.
And I'm not gonna split my family up.
I want to keep my family together.
So that's why I felt like it was unique,
because they can house one, two, or three people,
but they can't house a family of four or five.
-You want to grab a bag?
Grab?
-Can somebody open the trunk for me?
Okay.
-Let's get to them, okay.
Right.
One of the things that distinguishes Richmond
and maybe in the South more broadly,
though, is kind of this historical aspect
to housing instability and eviction.
So it's not just a story of poverty right now.
But there are several decades of recurring patterns
of housing instability that affect black people
and African American communities the hardest.
-Just let me know 'cause I will stay on until 4:30.
-All right.
-That one's still in activation.
-I've been homeless, so I've been there.
I got into being a deputy sheriff
because I wanted to help.
Like, my first eviction, I'm like,
"I actually got to put somebody out?"
Like, I've been through this.
But sometimes you just be doing the best that you can do.
But when things happen, it just happens.
All right, what time was your eviction?
Your eviction was at 1:00?
-It's a muscle. -Oh.
-I told you I did, like, this,
and I pulled something over here.
-Oh, wow. -That one's Brittany's.
-Okay, okay. If you're gonna help, just help.
Or just be quiet.
You know, just let it go.
At the end of the day, you know who people
are that really don't look down on you.
And my granddaughter, my grandsons,
they really do love me,
and my son and my daughter, they love me for who I am.
So my cars, my clothes, or my foot
or whatever does not make the difference in who I am.
Because if I have to live here or live in a mansion,
I'm still the same person.
So that's not gonna change.
And that's what people fail to remember,
that you're still the same person.
You know, so it doesn't even hurt anymore, you know?
-Sheriff's office. Anybody home?
-There's a housing crisis in the US and an eviction crisis.
Why it's gathering so much attention now
is because for poor people and for communities of color,
there has been a housing crisis and eviction crisis
and a displacement crisis for several decades.
-So all his evictions is with this one complex today.
And you start looking at the numbers, like,
"Okay, it's increasing."
Is it increasing, is it decreasing?
We really don't want to do them all
because you don't want to put people out.
But you have to 'cause you have to do your job.
-A house is going to provide stability for us
as far as housing is concerned,
but our attitudes and how we've handled this situation
is going to always be the same.