After two months of being blocked from entering his former home in Antrim Village, Dana Colburn was admitted back into his apartment on Monday following what he claims was an illegal eviction. Colburn has been given until Dec. 1 to retrieve his belongings.
Colburn was evicted last month from Antrim Village, an affordable housing complex designed for seniors and people with disabilities. Due to financial and time constraints, he was unable to retrieve most of his possessions.
After a tenant’s last day in the apartment, New Hampshire law requires landlords to store their personal property for seven days so they can retrieve it. According to Colburn, his eviction date fell six days before his next Social Security check. He had only enough gas to get to a friend’s house in Deering, and not enough time or money to organize a moving truck, boxes and supplies to get his things out.
According to property management, Colburn failed to recertify for his discounted housing rate through Section 8, which caused his rent to jump from his reduced rate of $437 monthly to the federally set market rate of $1,300. Colburn continued to pay the $437, but the difference racked up, resulting in what the management company says was $5,200 in unpaid rent.
Colburn claims he never got the notification about the hearing to recertify for Section 8 subsidy.
“I missed one appointment,” he said. “They really wanted me out.”
Colburn, who grew up with his grandparents in Weare, had a 37-year career as a mechanic.
“I started with small engines, and I worked my way up to big engines, cranes, rock-crushers. I’ve been in engines so large you could walk inside them,” Colburn said.
Colburn was also a state-certified Level 1 firefighter.
“I was getting my EMT before the last time I was homeless, and my goal was to become a paramedic,” he said. “I also worked in fire suppression systems; I went and got my license in Massachusetts, and I was working up to become a contractor.”
On Tuesday, Colburn was sorting through a lifetime of belongings, including vinyl records and a vintage stereo and speakers.
“I used to work as DJ,” he said. “People would say, ‘Hey, bring your stereo and your records over,’ and I would work parties. I’m a fix-it guy; I’ve always loved fixing stuff. I rebuilt that stereo myself, I rebuilt these speakers. I’m old school.”
Colburn said he was born prematurely, and suffered permanent damage to one eye resulting from his early days in the hospital.
“In 1966, when I was born, I weighed only two pounds, eleven ounces,” he said. “What they did back then was, they wrapped premies in a blanket and stuck them under a heat lamp and left them there, and I had permanent damage. That’s why my right retina is burned out from the light.”
Colburn said that according to family lore, his great-grandmother on his father’s side, Lavinia Coolidge, was a cousin of President Calvin Coolidge.
“My grandparents raised me since I was a month old, and their family has a lot of history in the area,” he said.
He treasures several pieces of furniture from his grandparents’ home, including glass-topped tables and several upholstered chairs. He pointed to a 1960s-era lamp that used to stand in his grandmother’s living room.
“That lamp had one of the very first dimmer switches. You twisted it around and it would dim the light,” he said.
In the middle of Colburn’s jumble of possessions is a child-sized leather saddle, a reminder of one of his happiest childhood memories.
“My father picked me up — he had a 1966 Lincoln Town Car — and that saddle was in the front seat with my dad, and a Shetland pony was in the back seat. The trunk was full of hay and grain, and that was my 10th birthday present,” Colburn said.
In the corner of Colburn’s apartment, by the south-facing window, a rack of open shelves was filled with house plants.
“I got a lot of these from my grandmother. I’ve taken care of them for years,” he said. “A neighbor offered to take them when I go, since I can’t take them.”
In Colburn’s bedroom, he proudly points to a massive aloe plant.
“That was my grandmother’s, too,” he said. “You don’t usually see one that big.”
Colburn also treasures a wooden sewing box that belonged to his grandmother, complete with thread, bobbins, and sewing tools.
“I know how to sew; I used to have a suitcase sewing machine that had been made in the mills in Weare, and I had that for years, used to repair all my own clothes and make things,” Colburn said. “Something would rip or need repairing, I could do that myself.”
Colburn is also reluctant to part with kitchen equipment, including a platter his family always used on Thanksgiving, and his roasting pan.
“I like to cook,” he said. “But I can’t take all this stuff with me.”
Colburn has been homeless twice before following health problems, personal problems, and struggles with alcohol. He said he has been sober for 25 years.
“I have no vices now,” he said. “I don’t drink; I don’t do drugs. I smoke, that’s it.”
On Tuesday, Colburn was awaiting a representative from a social service agency who was coming with a truck and a dolley to get his belongings into storage.
Colburn wasn’t sure where he was going to sleep Tuesday night.
“Maybe with family, but maybe in my truck,” he said. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m at my wits’ end.”