Tenants left all their stuff and paid no rent

[Joshua M. Jones]

I am helping family manage their rentals due to health problems. A tenants year long lease expired in October and they only paid part of rent for December and nothing for January February or March. I received a text that she will pay what she owes and be out by the end of the January. She would not answer my calls texts and she still has the keys. All their stuff is still in the rental and there is cat droppings everywhere. Can I still evict them? Send them to collections? Do I have to wait to get them evicted before I can get their stuff out? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks