eviction

An East Flatbush congregation of 200 was evicted without notice, then the building’s owners sued Bishop Lamor Whitehead for $3.5 million, alleging he filed a false deed claiming the property; he called the claims frivolous.

About 120 residents of Milner Village in Couva, Trinidad, most of them pensioners, received eviction notices from the Anglican Church, which had replaced a $41 annual rent with a $1,000 monthly demand as it moved to regularise tenancies on its land.

Trench Town started as a 1930s colonial housing scheme, before the government later burned over 800 shanties there, an eviction that inspired Desmond Dekker’s 007. A scholar cites Deuteronomy against exactly that kind of clearance.

A South African church that had tried since 2005 to buy the land it occupies defeated a municipal bid to evict it for a housing project, with the Western Cape High Court finding the council had not shown the occupation was unlawful.

A west London Pentecostal church, its community nursery and foodbank were locked out when developer Fruition Properties took possession of 2 Scrubs Lane, despite planning policy requiring space for the church in any redevelopment.

Before Little Bay’s eviction notices went out, a former government minister warned the landowner that residents’ adverse possession applications were already in progress, and that they wanted to buy the land, not steal it.

Karachi’s St Joseph Church, which served more than 300 Christian families, was demolished in an anti-encroachment drive along stormwater drains that displaced over 66,500 people, drawing criticism from UN experts.

Harare’s council demolished three churches on a recreational park and gave the land to Prophet Tapiwa Freddy’s ministry, which held the lease, while the displaced churches said they were never given a chance to buy.

Food For The Poor said COVID-19 job losses and evictions pushed housing requests above 100 a month in 2020, while it was building about 30 houses a month, and it launched a campaign to plant 10,000 fruit trees.

Soul Revival Kingdom Ministries, which had worshipped on two acres of state land at Carlsen Field, Chaguanas, since 2017 on a verbal agreement, was served an eviction notice in February 2020. The church said it had spent over $35,000 on the site.

As Constant Spring Market’s demolition loomed, vendors’ attorney urged them to physically stand their ground until compensated, pointing to an unanswered offer of 200 feet of land right behind the market that could have housed a replacement.

A 400-member Dagenham church was told to leave a council-owned former synagogue so it could be demolished for housing, after spending more than £30,000 on improvements under a short-term tenancy that had already expired.

Ekurhuleni metro police demolished 22 churches built on unoccupied land in 2018, with pastors saying some had stood for over a decade and that members’ donations went down the drain.

Abuja officials demolished a school under construction at Living Faith Church in Lifecamp, destroying over 3,000 donated blocks, saying notices had been served since 2014, while the pastor insisted approvals were in place.

The Rent Restriction Act sets real limits on rent increases and a strict legal process for eviction. What both landlords and tenants actually owe each other under Jamaican law.