Help Courtney Stay in Her Home - Hearing is 4/12

A flyer

Hey supporters!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support Courtney in court today.

Her first hearing was "set over" - postponed - until next Tuesday, 4/19, at 9am.
It will take place at the Multnomah County Courthouse (1021 SW 4th Ave, Portland, OR - corner of SW 4th & Main downtown), in room 120.

We hope to see you then and there!

 http://multnomah.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=1341

Court yesterday - it was YOU!
Courtney Shannon - Robertstad
United States

 https://www.change.org/p/greg-steele-professional-property-management-tell-my-landlord-not-to-poison-me/u/16294715?tk=NbYrlNJf_6-KKqbfRz9rNeQXYwhF4nDe8cICB3Ggmxo&utm_source=petition_update&utm_medium=email


APR 20, 2016 — Please forgive me for the delay on updating this. I really needed to take a brief time out from the immense stress' of all this and just breathe for a few hours. I hope you understand.

Several people showed up to support me in this action yesterday. Thank you Andrew Riley, Janelle Jeffries, Kif Davis, Charles Johnson, Betsy Zucker and Joe Walsh. We all sat patiently at roll call awaiting the judge to call my name n the property name, then we were directed to go into the hall. When the judge called my case, he said, oh, those attorneys aren't here yet are they? clerk answers no, not yet. My heart sank. Will I hafta do this yet again? Will the case just be dismissed because I am the only one here? I thought, oh wouldn't THAT be lovely! I mean the judge had no problem whatever judging cases immediately in favor of the property owners without any delay if the renter wasn't there! Alas my name was never called. I remedied this by informing the clerk.

We retreated into the hall where my attorney soon appeared and introduced himself to me for the first time. I handed him the petition & letters of support I'd gotten. (I've put that list below). Harry Ainsworth, my attorney and I began to have the, what kind of outcome do you want to have chats. My goals were, stop the harassment, have no eviction on my record and walk away with a positive reference from my landlord. *deer in the headlight look* well THATS not gunna happen he said. I can't ask for that. Well dear friends, never say never! Especially not to me! The seemingly impossible is merely the space where miracles happen. I am a woman of faith & God has shown me time and time again, this is the space where miracles happen!

I have had a huge problem with the owner wanting to bug spray, as you know. Now they wanted to "inspect my unit.' In my mind this is continued harassment! According to my attorney, the owner insists, my unit is, "bug central" and the owner is saying that I am endangering my fellow renters. He went on to state that I also have food waste & debris in my kitchen & pizza boxes and garbage." I find this outrageous! I asked him, what are they basing this on? I was told this did not matter. The landlord has a right to inspect any unit they want and they are within their legal rights to do that. My feeling is - This bug problem pre-existed years before I showed up here and I've NO doubt it will continue after I am gone. Are they trying to set me up for a future law suit?

Much time had passed until the landlords attorney appeared. Much to my shock and surprise he, Sia Rezvani, turned out to not only be a nice guy with a great sense of humor, he successfully argued with his client (the prop owner) on my behalf. It was almost immediately apparent that the asshole in all of this crap, was definitely Greg Steele.
Many phone calls later, mostly to get his absent client on the phone so we could proceed foreword n not delay the case yet again to Thursday, Sia got almost everything I wanted approved. EXCEPT one - a good reference. So here we are, the 3 of us in a courtroom huddle hammering out details, then it happens - So about a positive reference Sia? He answers, well my client, (Greg) DID say that his inbox has been overwhelmed by you're supporters! He is quite tired of that! Harry, (my attorney) quickly jumped in - well this w o u l d be a great opportunity for your client to remedy that with a positive outcome! I could see the thoughts race in Sia's head and he answered, yeah, ok, brb. And off he went to call the owner. BOOM! There it was!

It took a while, but the owner agreed, They would give me a "neutral" reference. Which means, they will say, yes, I lived here, yes I paid rent and nothing good or bad will be said about me & I will have no eviction on my record. BOOM DONE!

The bottom line -

They will come & inspect my unit next week.
I got a move out date of late July.
No eviction on record
"clutter" (due to moving) is acceptable
Neutral reference will be given
Harry, my pro-bono attorney that Legal aid gave me, will be paid $500.00 by Greg Steele. (Why does that sound wrong to me)

I will post more pics here later, as this site will only let me do one a day.

I'll also keep this site open until I pass inspection or however that all turns out, so I can update you accordingly. I have however removed the property owners email from the site.

That being said, I simply could not have had the outcome I had yesterday without YOU! It was this petition and your signatures and notes that made this happen! Thank you so very much PDX, and whoever you are from Cali, that took the time to blow up this guys inbox and make change happen! YOU've been a miracle! I urge you to not stop here, so many other folks face this as well. Lets continue to band together as neighbors and MAKE change happen!

**Shout out & HUGE thank you's for taking the time to write letters of support -

Christian Gaston - Human rights commissioner & Policy & research director for kafoury;

Center for Intercultural Organizing - Nichole Brown & Kayse Jama;

and the best for last,

Andrew Riley - You've been my voice here, headed this whole action up & gave me a voice when I could not find the strength to find my own. You Sir are the bad ass! I adore you! YOU young man, need to get you're ass back into politics & lets write some more laws together & kick some ass'!

my (other) absolute knight in shining armor & personal hero, who fought to get me into housing - Israel Bayer - Street Roots

*deep bow* with all that I am, I thank you!

~ Courtney