6 May 4 – 10, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents In 2008 he was diagnosed with arthritis in his knees, which restricts his steps to just a few inches. In 2010, he moved into another place in Oak Cliff, at Lancaster Avenue and East Sev- enth Street. He liked the complex and stayed there for years, but, he said, the area started to change and he started to feel unsafe. So, in 2015 he moved into a place at Ewing Avenue and East Seventh Street. That area, too, started to feel unsafe. He said his neighbors would have wild parties, and he suspected some were up to criminal activity. In 2020, he moved into the Oakridge Apartments, where he became neighbors with Sanchez. Sanchez had been at Oakridge Apart- ments since 2006. In 1971 she married her first husband, but they divorced less than two years later, and she moved in with her family, who had just bought a house in Oak Cliff. A few years later, she met her future second husband. They were together for 20 years before they married in 1998. They had their own house in Oak Cliff un- til he died in 2004. As the surviving spouse, she continued to receive her husband’s SSDI benefits, and she spent a couple of years liv- ing with her niece before moving into the Oakridge Apartments in 2006. When she first moved in, rent was $615 a month, but under the new owners it nearly doubled. The last job she had was as an assistant manager at a nursing home in Lancaster. Before that, she was working at a local restaurant. Eventually she was diagnosed with diabetes, arthritis and kidney failure, all of which prevented her from holding a job. The Oakridge Apartments were nice, she said. But over time, the place got worse. Management would ignore maintenance re- quests, she said, and residents feared retalia- tion if they complained. Then, last summer, notices were posted on their doors informing them that the complex was being renovated. They’d need to keep up with rent increases or find a new home. A fter the Oakridge Apartments, the only place Hernandez and Sanchez could afford in the area was El Shad- dai Bed and Board, which is registered as a group residential facility with the city. Al- though it’s not technically a boarding home, El Shaddai essentially functions as one. (One issue confronting the City Council early this year as it discussed new regulations for boarding homes is that there are different kinds of facilities that essentially do the same thing but aren’t licensed as boarding homes.) They each paid $650 a month to stay there. Each got a small unit equipped with air conditioning and a bathroom with just a toilet and sink. They shared the facility’s only working shower with the 15 other residents. Sanchez said the place was nice enough, but she hated sharing the shower and said main- tenance requests were ignored. The toilet in her unit, for example, was never secured to the floor, and she would often worry about falling off and injuring herself. Although Hernandez and Sanchez started to feel unsafe at El Shaddai, they had no choice but to stay there and wait for Fighting Homelessness to find another place they could afford. Hernandez said his room often felt like a prison cell. The facility is sectioned into six zones, each with a different-colored hallway and rooms on either side. Hernandez and San- chez had rooms along the lime-green hallway. Other than cameras at the end of each zone, Hernandez said, there’s no security at El Shad- dai, and he’d sometimes hear people fighting outside his room as he tried to sleep at night. “People would come in and out through- out the night,” he said. “I would listen to people walking through the hallway, just lis- tening. Nah, I didn’t feel safe.” Hernandez and Sanchez watched out for one another at El Shaddai. At night, Hernan- dez would tell her to lock her door and not answer unless he came knocking. They got better acquainted as they looked for housing. Marshall, who started Fighting Home- lessness, said she saw all of this coming. She knew this part of town was being gentrified and predicted that as soon as someone else bought the Oakridge Apartments the ten- ants living there would be at risk of becom- ing homeless. When the complex went up for sale, she tried to get the city involved. She warned that without intervention the tenants would likely become homeless. She hoped the city would be able to give Hernandez and Sanchez vouchers. Instead, the city offered some al- ternative housing options, but many were out of their price ranges, especially without vouchers. The others were too far away from family and services they rely on. On top of that, they had no way of paying for things like application fees and security deposits. They were out of luck and running out of hope. Unlike Sanchez, Hernandez didn’t think too highly of El Shaddai. He said he had a bad feeling about the place when he first set foot inside. He said the place had a foul smell, and he thought it was starting to have a pest problem. “It just wasn’t worth it,” he said. “I was spending more money cleaning the showers.” They stayed there for nearly four months. Hernandez would try to check in on San- chez every day and would often spend time with her in her room. Every now and then, he said he’d hear gunshots on the streets near the property. He felt unsafe anytime he’d walk to a nearby store for groceries. Advocates with Fighting Homelessness were trying to get Hernandez into the du- plex where they now reside, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to afford it on his own without a voucher. The alternatives were staying at El Shaddai or moving in with his parents and niece, who occupy a single-bed- room trailer in Dallas. While at El Shaddai, Sanchez considered moving farther away from Dallas and her doctors, but worried her care would suffer. She started talking to Hernandez about it, and that’s when Hernandez pitched an idea. Why don’t they both move into the duplex? It would be a tight squeeze, but it would be better than the alternatives. The Observer tagged along with Marshall and a few volunteers with Fighting Home- lessness as they moved Hernandez’s and Sanchez’s belongings from the El Shaddai to their new duplex. Sylvia Hendrix, the owner of El Shaddai, was upset that we went into her place and took photos and videos without her knowl- edge. She said we wouldn’t have done so if the group home was in a white neighbor- hood. “If it was University Park, you wouldn’t have done that,” Hendrix said. “Y’all only come to hurt people.” Hendrix believed that Marshall was intent on seeing her property come under new own- ership and that the Observer was aiding this ef- fort. She said someone with the city stopped by the property the same day Hernandez and Sanchez moved out, and that someone con- tacted the City Council about her facility. She’s determined to keep running the place. “All of this is a setup,” she said. “The City Council and the city came by that same afternoon when y’all left. And the people that live there, I was not there, but they told me that that’s what it is. So, sir, I don’t know. But I’ve got to fight for myself and I’ve got to fight for those people. “I’m going to fight for that building. I’m going to fight for those people to stay there. If y’all want to take some property, y’all bet- ter go find somewhere else.” The Observer, of course, has no interest in who owns Hendrix’s property, but that doesn’t mean she’s necessarily wrong about the threats coming her way. The last time City Hall made a major push to improve the quality of rental homes for poor people was around seven years ago.In that round, the city targeted property owners it called “slum- lords” in West Dallas and South Dallas, de- manding the owners improve the quality of their rental houses, some of which were rent- ing for around $500 a month. The landlords pushed back, arguing that bringing their properties up to newer, tighter codes would require higher rents. Their homes might wind up in better shape, but many of Nathan Hunsinger John O’Callahan offers Hector Hernandez some renters’ advice. Nathan Hunsinger Alecia Sanchez talks with Lisa Mitchell. Unfair Park from p4 >> p8
