“Right now, all I can do is sit here,” said Doris Pettiford, who lives with three grandchildren aged 6, 4 and 3. “No one can get management to talk at all.”

Lincoln renter Bernadette Toomer was another without new housing.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” she said Monday. “We’ve got a couple more things up our sleeve.”

Some Lincoln residents and supporters marched Monday afternoon from the Durham County Department of Social Services office to City Hall.

“We’re calling on the owners to stop the eviction process,” said Senbolo Dieminah, a neighborhood organizer who lives near the Lakeland Street complex.

‘They’re not budging’

City officials have also tried to negotiate a delay with the apartments’ owner, the Lincoln Hospital Foundation, but without success.

“They’re not budging,” said Dub Karriker, a board member of the nonprofit Bless Durham, which has aided some Lincoln residents. Some had held out hope for a reprieve, but Karriker said tenants were notified the water would be cut off after today.

Lincoln Apartments’ management notified residents Sept. 28 that it would “cease operations” at the 150-unit complex as of Oct. 31, and require all residents to leave.

Due to “unfavorable financial conditions ... continued operations are no longer possible,” the notice said.

The 150-unit complex was built for low-income renters in the 1960s, and receives no government subsidy. According to Howard Williams, president of Southern Real Estate, the apartments’ manager, rent is the only source of income and few of the approximately 100 residents were current on their payments.

An overdue city water bill and no money to pay it led to the decision to close. City authorities had agreed to keep the water on despite the debt, and in early October thought the foundation would put off closing. However, the owners and managers decided to stick to their original date.

Besides the city and Bless Durham, Durham County and the Durham Housing Authority have tried to assist Lincoln residents. DSS and Bless Durham provided some financial aid, for deposits and first-month’s rent, but many still faced problems.

“I was offered a Section 8 (rent) voucher on Friday,” Pettiford said, “but I can’t – it’s hard to find a place (to move).

“I don’t get but $845 a month and I’ve got to have a truck to move,” she said. With moving costs, logistics, landlords’ restrictions, “There’s always something there to block you.”

According to Dieminah, more than 45 households were still facing eviction without new housing. City Councilman Steve Schewel, who has been the council’s unofficial liaison with Lincoln residents, said, “Our churches and charitable groups need to step up and take one of these families under their wings.

“We need to recognize the reality,” Schewel said. “The holidays are coming and people will be evicted.”