Need some help communicating this kindly

I hired a developer to build an app. On 6/5, we had a call and made a queue of the work he needs to do. After the call, he said he needed to wrap up another contract then his full attention will be on this. The following week, nothing got done. His excuse (I only call it an excuse in hindsight bc this is a pattern, but at the time I was very empathetic) was his car was towed and he had to go across town to pick it up. Then a day later he said the car had something wrong with its tires so he had to take care of that. Anytime we had a check-in call, he would say he will have something complete by end of week. Nothing was done.

We had a call on 6/12 where he said the queue would take him about a week but definitely no more than two weeks (his words). He’s a very skilled developer so competence isn’t the issue here. Nothing got done this last week. We have a call on Friday 6/17 where he says he’s going to be attending a festival starting on 6/22. He says that he’ll have a big chunk of the queue complete this weekend. It’s now sunday evening and nothing has been done. I sent him a message this morning checking in and no response even though it shows he’s online.

This has been extremely stressful to deal with. When I’m upset, I can be very blunt and abrasive. I need some help on how I should address the situation / ask him if we are on the same page, and get him to recognize he needs to be accountable.

**How do I communicate:**

**>He needs to get the queue complete this week**

**>Going forward, whatever he says he’s going to do, he needs to do it**

I’ve been very patient with him, and this isn’t a situation where I can just find another developer – so please no responses saying that.