Her family pays $2000 a month for a roach-filled apartment

“All I'm asking for is healthy living, and not even for me,” said Sucely. “I have four kids. They're great students, they're great kids..."

“I don't get to use the kitchen,” said Sucely Murillo as she showed me around her apartment on Monday. She had already shown me and the camera crew from Channel 6 the roaches that live behind the picture hanging in her living room and her children's room.

But when she opened to door to a kitchen cupboard and more than a dozen roaches spilled out onto the floor and scurried away from the light, I jumped, bumping the Channel 6 team.

“Oh, Jesus!” I exclaimed and then apologized for bumping them.

“A reasonable response,” said Channel 6 reporter Josh Kurman.

I was there because the Providence Organization of Workers and Renters (POWR) was holding a PVD Against Slumlords Rally at the apartment Sucely rents from Frédérique Dorival at 885 Atwells Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island. As the rally began, I noted the presence of two Providence Police cars, and a third one joined them later.

Speaking to the crowd of two dozen housing advocates, Sucely was philosophical:

“I always win the lottery when it comes to slumlords,” said Sucely. “I think at this point, after everything we've all been through - not only me but each of us is going through our battles - We figured out that we're coming into a system that doesn't understand our generation. Our generation is being deluded by the old generation who doesn't want to improve, who doesn't want to come out from the old.”

After seeing the roaches and other insects, the hole in the ceiling of the bathroom with exposed insulation, and the broken window in her kids' room, not to mention the issues she has with heat and the showers - Sucely put her experience in perspective.

“There are so many people sleeping in the freaking streets and they don't have nowhere to be, not even an option to fucking have a bed,” she said, before unnecessarily apologizing for her language. “If they're camping, people will call the police to harass them.”

The landlord, Frédérique Dorival, did not respond to a request for comment.

“The guy is a deacon at the Haitian church on, so when we met, he's like, ‘I already love God and I will do my best to help you,’” Sucely explained.

When Sucely couldn't get the landlord to fix her apartment she contacted Providence's Code Enforcement. She believes that it was this code that prompted Dorival to begin eviction proceedings against her. She pays her rent - $2000 a month - into a court-mandated account pending a resolution of her case.

“All I'm asking for is healthy living, and not even for me,” said Sucely. “I have four kids. They're great students, they're great kids. You have people going through this within neighborhoods because they're uneducated or because they don't know their rights.

“My landlord is a church deacon and he said he follows Jesus's steps, but this is not following Jesus. I am a believer in God. I don't need to go to church to understand what God wants me to do for the person next to me. I try to go by that, but honestly, it's exhausting. I'm tired. [Though] it is not more exhausting than being in a hotel. I've been in a hotel. I thank God had the opportunity to get out of that hotel situation, but I had to sleep in the car with my kids."

I asked Sucely to expand on her idea that her generation not being accepting of these conditions.

“I'm 32 years old. My millennial generation is not accepting of this,” said Sucely. “I learned about housing injustice. I learned about my rights. I was abandoned in this country at 12 years old. I didn't know any better, but I've spent my life educating myself, understanding what needs to be done, and speaking up.

“The old generation is blocking us from what we want to do. The old generations don't want us to do things how we want because they're afraid. Their generation is going to pass and our generation is going to continue to evolve and I think we're the ones that we should care about. That's why we're fighting [against] climate change. That's why I'm fighting for the Sunrise Movement and the Green New Deal.

“That's why we have power to the people.

“That's what we have Reclaim RI. That's why we have DARE. We have a lot of great people because we're tired and we want a clean environment. We want a nice job so we can have enough to pay rent and eat daily. We want a new generation where my kids don't have to struggle with any of this in any way, shape, or form. I don't want police harassing them. I don't want political people harassing them or stepping on them. I just want them to be happy. And I say it again, the old generation is affecting us and they need to stop because we have a new generation that's ready to get in the fight.”

Sucely Murillo