Homeless Because of a Riot

Please help if you can

Dellena Jones’ 911 Salon in Ferguson was targeted in numerous riots. Some St. Louis Tea Party members met Dellena during our BUYcott (h/t Dr. Gina Loudon) in 2014.

Dellena and her 8-year-old daughter, Summer, became homeless yesterday, having been evicted from the house she’d been renting for 10 years.

Summer is now living with relatives while Dellena sleeps in her car.

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We learned that the riots hurt her business in multiple ways. First, the immediate violence that broke her windows, ransacked her salon, and stole her equipment and products. Then came the downturn in business, as people stayed away from the Ferguson business district out of fear.

Over time, the home she rented on Falcon Drive in Florissant, became unlivable. Her landlord failed to perform basic maintenance. One of her two bathrooms was completely unusable. A basement water issue led to a mold problem that exacerbated her daughter’s asthma. Her kitchen appliances failed.

Each time Dellena reported a problem, the landlord ignored.

In March, she’d had enough. She couldn’t afford to move, and she couldn’t live in the conditions wrought by the building’s dilapidation. To get the landlord’s attention, she refused to pay rent until something was done.

The landlord went to court. Unable to afford an attorney, Dellena represented herself. “The judge helped me a lot,” she told me. “He said I needed to pay the back rent, and I did.” She texted me the receipt and the landlord’s acknowledgment. (The landlord’s property manager, Lisa Dzafic of Emerald Key Property Management, did not respond to requests for comment.)

Emerald Key Property Management, according to Dellena, fixed nothing. She sent her daughter live with relatives and she is living in her car.

What’s worse is that Dellena had been self-sufficient. When her old shop in Ferguson was rendered unviable due to rioting surrounding Michael Brown’s death and subsequent trials, Dellena had moved her business to her home, as many stylists do. Without a home, Dellena is effectively out of business.

Please help.

You can donate to a GiveSendGo campaign I began last week:

If you have know of a home for rent in the Ferguson/Florissant area, please let me know, and I’ll pass the information to Dellena.