Mollie Wilson Lyons, 65, has heart problems and fluid build-up in her lungs. She is not leaving her home in Montgomery for fear of the coronavirus, yet she faces being forcibly removed because of a pending eviction.

“If I was evicted and had nowhere to go with this congestive heart failure, it would be a great fear to me,” said Lyons, whose daughter and grandson would also be removed.

Lyons is relieved, however, that her eviction hearing is now postponed until April 17, after an order by the Alabama Supreme Court delaying in-person hearings.

She also lives in Montgomery County, a place where the sheriff is holding off on physically removing tenants from their homes. Without a statewide moratorium on evictions, county sheriffs must now decide whether to put tenants out on the street.

Evictions are still occurring by sheriff’s department in some parts of the state. Mobile County, which carried out 2,466 unlawful detainers (a type of legal method for evicting someone) in 2019, is one where the sheriff’s department is still performing evictions, a spokesperson there confirmed.

But sheriffs in Jefferson, Montgomery and Madison, three of the state’s four top-evicting counties, with 5,543, 3,357 and 2,257 respective evictions in 2019, say they are not booting residents out due to the pandemic.

“You gotta have a heart,” said Madison County Sheriff’s spokesman Brent Patterson. Area homeless shelters are already full, and Alabamians are losing jobs, he said.

Preliminary unemployment claims in the state reached 59,783 through Thursday. Claims from the week ending March 21 were 9,347, up from 1,675 the week before.

“How do you walk up in someone's home and remove them... when they have no place to go?” Patterson asked. “It's a bad time right now for everybody.”

On the federal level, HUD properties and rental houses with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have suspended evictions, but the ruling does not cover all privately-owned rental units.

Lyons is a retired newspaper home delivery manager for Gannett who says she has no retirement but lives on social security. Her husband passed away a few months ago. She says this is not her first eviction. Recently, she fell behind on rent while awaiting a widow’s benefit that she says is delayed, partly because of a bank account mix up and partly because of the virus.

Her daughter, who lives with her, works in retail and had her hours cut because of the pandemic. Lyons’ grandson, who also lives with her, is finishing high school.

“I have to have a place to stay, and I have to have my money so that I can pay to have a place to stay,” she said.

Lyons’ eviction case for $1,550 in back rent was filed on March 5, but evictions are often a months-long process.

To address concerns during a national health emergency, several cities and states around the country have enacted eviction moratoriums, including New York, Oregon and Washington state.

Advocacy groups are calling for a similar measure for Alabama.

"People cannot shelter in place if they have no shelter,” said Carla Crowder, executive director of Alabama Appleseed.

“Moving forward on evictions would be devastating for vulnerable Alabamians,” she added.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s spokeswoman, Gina Maiola, said that a moratorium is not off the table.

“The governor is staying highly engaged on the evolving situation and will continue exploring any efforts to protect the people of Alabama,” Maiola said in an email, adding that health and safety of Alabamians is paramount.

Michael Godwin is an attorney who represents landlords in eviction cases. He says most of his clients understand the gravity of the current situation, but he hopes there will be adequate federal aid to the industry, which often operates on thin margins.

“Landlords and the attorneys who work heavy in the field of landlord representation are worried for their economic futures and the futures of their families,” said Godwin.

The Alabama Apartment Association did not respond to a request for comment.

As the first of the month approaches, several tenants have reached out to Alabama Media Group saying their landlords sent letters stating that rent is due and threatening eviction if it is not paid.

In other cases, landlords have offered to work with their tenants who might be facing hardship.

Farah Majid, attorney for Legal Services Alabama, says the current state of limbo raises due process concerns. Typically once an eviction notice is served, a resident has seven days to file an answer before a default judgement can be entered.

Majid worries tenants may not be able to respond now because courthouses are now closed, even as evictions continue to be filed.

“They (tenants) are not being given an opportunity to assert defenses or have their day in court,” she said.

Majid would like to see a nationwide ban on all evictions.

Leigh Waite, 52, says she got an eviction notice in the mail recently. Her landlord claims she owes $2,200.09.

“Are people really going to evict people in the middle of this? Where am I going to go?” she asked.

Waite lives in Jefferson County, so she is unlikely to be put out in the immediate future.

“Facing eviction during a pandemic is a lot to deal with,” she said.

Waite recently got a divorce and lost her clinical coordinator job of 24 years. In search of income, she started her own business doing construction-site janitorial work. Now her jobs have slowed to a halt, and she feels lucky to get a day of work here and there.

She recently sold her car and is borrowing rides to keep the apartment that is home to her 15-year-old daughter and her 81-year-old mother.

“I don’t (know) which end is up half the time,” she said of the situation. “It’s just hard for me to understand why it’s happening to me.”

On Sunday, U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) called for a statewide moratorium on evictions. Birmingham Circuit Judge Bob Vance said he has stopped entering judgments that would result in evictions and knows of several other judges who have done the same.

Folks, the eviction moratorium we just passed only applies to federally insured mortgage properties. For all others the State of Alabama should immediately amend the emergency order placing a moratorium on all evictions until this crisis passes. https://t.co/84axAF40hj — Doug Jones (@DougJones) March 29, 2020

This article was updated to reflect that Alabamians have seven days to respond to an eviction before a default judgement, to reflect reactions from a couple of people and to add that this is not Lyons’ first eviction