An Unexpected Lesson: How Escape Eviction Redefined “Success” for me

As a high school junior moving toward adult life, I feel like I am in two timelines. One is the future, where I decide where to go to college and embrace the possibilities of who I might become. The other is about the present, and what I see every day in Dallas. Not everybody gets to plan long-term. Some of us are just trying to stay housed. And many people don’t realize how thin the line between financial security and homelessness can be.

 Homelessness often starts in the thousands of evictions filed a month in Dallas County, according to the Texas Office of Court Administration. In local reporting, NBC DFW has found that the majority of evictions in Dallas County are families with children. Once evicted, homelessness can become a vicious cycle: it can be difficult to attend school, land a job, or keep to a work schedule while living on the streets. So people who become homeless often have great difficulty improving their situation.

 Eviction in Texas can be expedited: under the Texas Property Code, landlords can give their tenants as little as three days’ notice before filing for eviction. That means tenants can have as little as three days to try to prevent eviction proceedings from beginning by paying any past due rent or remedying any lease violations. Evictions can be challenged in court, but this often incurs legal costs that families who are struggling to pay rent cannot afford.

 This is why Escape Eviction is key. I founded this Dallas-based, youth-led nonprofit organization and we fight to prevent eviction from becoming permanent in communities such as Oak Cliff, South Dallas, and West Dallas. With high rents, low wages, and a consistent lack of investment and affordable housing in these areas, hyper-local organizing efforts are an immediate, personal response to the housing crisis.

 Escape Eviction closes the legal representation gap by offering legal clinics and organizing families with partner organizations Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas and the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center. These legal clinics can help tenants understand their options when served with eviction notices, and connect them with legal aid organizations who may provide pro bono representation to fight eviction.

 Eviction not only affects housing, but education as well. A review of the literature by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that eviction yields an increase in school absenteeism and a decrease in graduation. Displacement causes loss of routine, transportation, and support systems.

 Psychologists classify moving to a new home as one of the most stressful events in a person’s life. The loss of safe, familiar spaces causes the body to release fear and stress hormones which can even worsen mental and physical illnesses. The same psychological studies also find that chronic stress is worse than “acute” stress from a short-lived address. The body is made to handle short-lived stressful events: it is not made to handle feeling unsafe all the time. The toll on the mind and body accumulates.

 In homelessness, the loss of familiarity and security becomes chronic. There is never a feeling of safety or security until a new, permanent home is procured. The resulting fear and stress hormones have devastating effects on the mind and body. Homelessness can be especially devastating if illness affecting one’s ability to work was a cause of homelessness in the first place. This might be why research shows that roughly half of unhoused adults have a disability of some kind.

 Imagine trying to attend school and learn when you do not have a bedroom to sleep in, and you’re not sure where your next meal will come from. Imagine being unable to wash your clothes or shower regularly, and being afraid that friends will find out you are homeless. The physical, emotional, and social stress of homelessness is titanic. Psychologists already rank moving as one of the most stressful events a person can undergo in life, right up there with the deaths of family members.

 Now imagine being forced to move because your family can’t pay rent, and not having anywhere to go. Seeing this happening all around me, I had no choice but to act.

 In a perfect world, affordable housing and a social safety net would prevent people from being unhoused due to poverty or illness.

 Since we don’t live in that perfect world, Escape Eviction helps people fight eviction proceedings, and tries to give the unhoused some sense of security and care by running donation drives, delivering food and household items, and partnering with other community organizations to educate the public about the real cost of homelessness and how to respond to eviction notices.

 Escape Eviction proves that youth leadership is not symbolic. It is effective. Students are not just learning about housing insecurity in class. We are fighting it in our own city.

 As I look to graduate high school, I think a lot about what success means. Escape Eviction has changed that for me. Success is not just going to college. Success is making sure families can stay in their homes, and that people going through hard times feel cared for.

 In Dallas, the most important school supply is still a stable home.