7 January 15 - 21, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents make,” he said. “So I was curious at that point. OK, it’s a fair question. What’s the an- swer?” Building a database so extensive that it slowed down his computer, the advocacy center analyzed the thousands of clients it represented in 2025 and cross-checked evic- tion data from the prior 12 months to deter- mine how many of those clients had been repeat offenders in eviction lawsuits. Over- whelmingly, they found that most Dallasites they represented who faced eviction last year were not repeat offenders. Nearly 84% of the center’s clients in 2025 had not experienced an eviction in the year prior, a number that Melton believes chal- lenges the stigmas surrounding eviction. He added that the Center’s data was similar to findings from the Child Poverty Action Lab and Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, validating the study’s results. “If it were really just the lazy deadbeats being lazy deadbeats, you would expect a higher recidivism rate. The fact that most of these people don’t repeat does indicate that these are shocks to their personal economic systems,” Melton said. “There’s just this bias in the public eye that wrongfully assumes people who are in eviction court getting evicted are there for a good reason, and they kind of had it coming.” The center does not vet clients or have eli- gibility requirements for representation, which Melton says allows lawyers to repre- sent nearly “an entire docket” in court. While a background check process could potentially help weed out serial offenders, Melton does not believe that number is large enough to enact a policy that would bar the center from representing as many people as it does. Only 4% of the center’s sample had three or more evictions within a 12-month period, the study found. A rent payment doesn’t sud- denly go away when the center represents a person, so Melton believes the fact that there aren’t more people who face repeated evic- tion notices within a one-year period shows that “something constructive” can happen when tenants have access to due process. When Melton talks to individuals fac- ing eviction, a majority share that unex- pected emergencies played a role in their inability to make rent: a car needing new tires, an hourly worker taking a few days off to stay home with her sick children, or childcare falling through. Those “external shocks” can be the tipping point for a fam- ily with “a budget that’s already stretched to its limit.” “You have a whole population of people that really are just kind of in a bad situa- tion because inflation’s high, and their budgets are stretched, and they’re trying their best, and something just went wrong,” Melton said. “And from a policy perspective, it makes sense to help those people.” He believes the data also show that most people who are behind on their rent need “just a little more time” to get caught up. For individuals who faced multiple evic- tions, the court filings were submitted, on average, 93 days apart. The average length between someone being late on rent and the case showing up in court, on the other hand, is 21 days. If the center were winning on technicali- ties and delaying the inevitable, Melton said, you’d see landlords filing a proper eviction lawsuit within 72 hours of the first case clos- ing. Then that person would return to court in about three weeks. Instead, the 90-day gap suggests to Melton that the households were able to “figure something out” and get back on track for a period before falling be- hind again. He plans to dig deeper into the underly- ing factors leading to repeat offending and hopes to identify shared characteristics across the demographic that could be used to identify at-risk renters. Those findings could be especially useful in policy discus- sions the next time state legislators ask, “What’s the point?” “We’re sitting here in a lot of cases making policy based on the 3% of the pop- ulation [that repeatedly offends] and not the 97% that’s just having an economic shock in their budget,” Melton said. “I think it’s very interesting data that shows these are one-off cases. There’s just a bunch of them because the situation is re- ally dire out there.” ▼ POLITICS ‘TEXAS NEEDS A WINNER’ SENATE HOPEFUL JAMES TALARICO TALKS OF AI, VOTER INTIMIDATION AND HIS FAVORITE BREAKFAST TACO DURING PLANO Q&A. BY EMMA RUBY A fter spending decades as an educa- tor, it would be impossible for Jill Balzer to keep up with each of the hundreds of students who have passed through her classrooms. But in early 2025, while scrolling through Instagram, a video recommended to her by her algorithm caught her eye. The video fea- tured state Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from San Antonio, delivering an impassioned speech on the Texas House floor. It was one of the many Talarico clips that went viral during last year’s legislative session, shooting the young representative to state political stardom. “I was like, ‘Is this the same Jimmy Ta- larico who was in my freshman class at Mc- Neil High School?’” Balzer told the Observer about a message she sent Talarico. “He mes- saged me right away, and he said, ‘Coach, you’re one of the reasons I went into poli- tics.’ And of course, that’s every teacher’s dream.” Balzer was one of the nearly 2,000 North Texans who filed into the Plano Event Cen- ter on Monday evening for a town hall hosted by Talarico, his first campaign event in the area since launching a bid for U.S. Sen- ate. Talarico faces Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomi- nation. The winner of that primary will at- tempt to break the losing streak that has haunted Democrats in Texas’ state-wide races since 1994. Talarico, 36, took questions from the North Texas crowd for more than an hour. He addressed his concerns about unregu- lated artificial intelligence — “We are about to fall off the cliff”; his desire to pursue stronger legal protections for teachers — “a profession in crisis”; and his favorite food — “breakfast tacos”. “What kind of breakfast tacos?” Yelled a member of the crowd. “Ah. A follow-up question. I’d say bacon, egg and cheese,” responded Talarico. Throughout the town hall, Talarico tee- tered between the talking points that have helped spur his political celebrity, such as his belief that the interests of billionaires are interfering with governance that is most beneficial for average Americans, and new policy proposals. One, which received a standing ovation from the crowd, came when a 9-year-old boy named Ryan asked what should be done to stop federal immi- gration raids. Talarico emphasized his support for im- migrant communities and called for laws that would bar ICE agents from wearing masks and would strip away some of the le- gal protections that have shrouded the agency under President Donald Trump’s ad- ministration. Talarico also previewed a policy proposal that would repeal tax cuts offered to the wealthy under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and redistribute the money to bring teacher salaries to $100,000 annually across the United States. Talarico declined to share more details of the proposal with reporters after the town hall, stating that more details would be released by the campaign in the next month. He even cited a former presi- dent from Texas, known for increasing fed- eral funding for public schools, to illustrate his point. “I know it sounds ambitious,” Talarico said. “We have to live up to Lyndon B. John- son’s ambition … you have a champion in me, and you will have a champion in the United States Senate.” Talarico, a former teacher himself, said he believes having an educator in the U.S. Senate “will make a difference” for conver- sations about protections for public school systems and educators. He railed against book banning and school vouchers — topics that Balzer said are important to her as an educator. Her admiration for Talarico doesn’t just stem from their student-teacher background; she said she believes in many of the policies he advocates for. “The way I taught, you can’t teach like that today. I’d lose my job, just for teaching the truth,” said Balzer, who taught ninth- grade World Geography and encouraged conversations about religion, political values and world conflicts. “So it means everything that we get someone in [the Senate] like James, who will fight for public education. It’s the foundation of our democracy.” Despite his social media following and stints on shows like the Joe Rogan Experi- ence and the YouTube show Surrounded, some early polling suggests that Talarico still lags behind Crockett in the race to be the Democrats’ Senate nominee. The De- cember survey by Texas Southern Univer- sity found that Crockett has an 8-point lead over Talarico, thanks, in large part, to name recognition. When asked how he plans to overcome that deficit, Talarico said, “through events like tonight’s” that encour- age dialogue with real Texans. Talarico and Crockett are expected to de- bate later this month in Georgetown. zimmytws/Shutterstock Thousands of people face eviction in Dallas County each month. Emma Ruby A packed house came out to quiz Democratic senatorial candidate James Talarico in Plano.
