Photo by Deb Gau Abandoned furniture, and trash containers filled with household items and mattresses, could be seen outside the Sunrise Court apartments on Sunday. Residents said many people have been moving out of the complex since Thursday or Friday.

MARSHALL — Residents of the Sunrise Court apartments had been fighting to stay in their homes, but it looked like many were still moving out this weekend.

By Sunday afternoon, things were relatively quiet outside Sunrise Court, but there were signs of activity all around the complex. Abandoned furniture and other items were scattered outside one building door, while more furniture and mattresses were piled in trash containers in the parking lots.

People started moving out sometime around Thursday or Friday, residents said.

“There’s not many people left. I think the families with the smaller kids are gone,” one resident said Sunday. She said she saw people trying to pack what belongings they could in their vehicles. “They were hauling stuff in cars, and little vans.”

The string of tenants moving out came after a Lyon County District Court judge’s ruling on three emergency petitions from Sunrise Court residents. The petitioners asked for emergency relief due to the heat not being turned on in the apartment buildings. The new owners of the property, Suite Liv’n, claimed the heating systems were in bad shape and couldn’t be turned on. In September, Sunrise Court tenants received letters asking them to vacate the building by Oct. 19.

On Wednesday, the judge ordered that Suite Liv’n start working to repair the heating systems within six months. However, the order didn’t say anything about upholding current tenants’ leases.

“A lot of people are moving out because of the judge’s order,” said Josh Prine, one of the Sunrise Court residents who was trying to organize a response to Suite Liv’n’s request for tenants to leave the apartments. Prine said it appeared a number of tenants who worked at Turkey Valley Farms all moved out at the same time over the weekend.

Some tenants had started looking for other places to live back in September after getting the letters from Suite Liv’n. After the news about the letters came out, the Travelers Lodge motel in Marshall also offered special rates for Sunrise Court residents looking for temporary housing.

Prine and Sunrise Court resident Jessica Thovson said they were among the residents who had found housing elsewhere. However, Prine said he still planned to keep working with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid to try and get some kind of relief for Sunrise Court tenants who have leases that go past October.