CHANDLER — Erin Wright was never supposed to be in this position when she moved to Arizona in July of 2021.
“Wednesday is bringing what I’ve been told is an eviction and a constable coming to our home to have us officially removed and have our keys turned over,” Wright told ABC15.
Wright and her 5-year-old son, Connor, are trying to enjoy what is likely their final days in their home. They’re packing up months after Wright's boyfriend of five years left her and Connor behind — leaving her with no income.
“My biggest fear is the consistency for my son,” Wright said. “That is something I feel I have been grasping to straws with over the last 8 weeks. He has lost more in all of this than anyone.”
Wright — who has experience in the teaching and restaurant industries — says she’s looking to find a job to support herself and her son.
In the meantime, she has a GoFundMe page set up to help them afford a place where they can keep the lights on.
“Starting fresh is a wonderful opportunity, but it wasn’t something I was expecting to do,” Wright said. “It’s changing the way of thinking of we’re not looking at the American Dream anymore, we’re just looking to get by day-to-day right now.”
Eviction Lab tracks evictions across the country and found evictions in Phoenix alone were up 41% from the average in March. In total, there were 71,748 eviction filings in Phoenix in the last year.
In February, Maricopa County Justice Courts saw 5,280 eviction filings.
With her son slated to start kindergarten in July, Wright is now trying to figure out where that will be.
“I don’t want to have to keep lowering my standards for him,” Wright said. “ This is not the life I intended for him. This is not the life I worked hard to give him and I feel like he has been robbed in so many ways. But he is my driving force to get up and keep going, day in and day out.”
