Sherae Honeycutt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Original Post

At least four people were without a place to stay over the holiday weekend in KCMO after they say their landlord shut them out of their homes.

The boarded building on 30th Street and Indiana Avenue sits empty and unlivable. The residents say they just want a warm place to sleep.

“None of us got Christmas. Our Christmas was on the street,” resident Bernadette Weakey said.

Both Weakey and Issac Jackson were out in the cold after they say an electrical fire destroyed their building earlier this month.

“Red Cross came out here. They put us up for three days,” Weakey said. “Now, he put us up for what? A week, maybe half. Then today he’s going to say this is his last day. He can’t pay for our hotel services anymore, but by law he should be able to make sure that we have someplace to go.”

The former residents said their landlord, Brian Stoker, won’t help them anymore and won’t let them back in the building.

“After seven years of being with this man in this building, I would have thought he would have gave me more respect than what he’s doing now,” Weakey said.

“I’m out on the street, and I’m in the cold, and I paid him my rent faithfully with no problem,” former resident Issac Jackson said.

Both Weakley and Jackson said now their landlord won’t answer their texts.

“I never experienced this, but being homeless is something, you know what I’m saying, that anybody shouldn’t have to go through,” Jackson said. “Especially in this cold weather.”

All said they don’t expect much but need some help.

“Being stranded out here is no joke for anyone,” Jackson said.

After this story aired, Stoker reached out to FOX 4 Tuesday evening, saying that he has provided hotel accommodations since the fire, and they will all have a hotel room Tuesday night as well.

“I am continuing to work through this situation with each tenant, and each tenant’s safety and rights are my utmost concern,” Stoker said.

“When each tenant signed his or her lease, they agreed to maintain renter’s insurance or initialed that they understood the risks of not having renter’s insurance,” he added. “I have paid out of my pocket for housing for all of them even though this is why each of them should have renter’s insurance.”