Kindness + Strategy + Speed = Escape Eviction’s Winning Formula

A week ago, a single mother named Kendra (a pseudonym to protect her privacy) reached out to Escape Eviction from the South Dallas region. She was on the verge of being locked out of her apartment just a few days before Christmas. She wasn’t careless. She was employed. She made a partial payment. She recently received an unexpected bill and fell behind, which came at the worst possible time of year. “I don’t even want any gifts,” she told me. “I just want my kids to wake up in the same bed on Christmas morning.”

That phrase still echoes in my mind.

Escape Eviction’s “kindness + strategy + speed” winning formula made all the difference for her.

Kindness

Kindness toward people facing eviction is crucial. Like most clients, Kendra came to us in a state of heightened anxiety and exhaustion. First and foremost, she was treated as a human being, not a “case number.” We learn about our clients’ particular circumstances and guide them toward a personalized resolution.

Strategy

The objective is not to hand over a check and vanish, but to restore sustainable order. At times, this help involves making a rent payment. Occasionally, it involves linking a person with someone locally, like legal clinics and financial literacy help, so they don’t sink after the crisis. In Kendra’s situation, we had to make sure that the landlord was compensated enough to stop the lockout and buy time. 

Speed

Eviction in Texas is a speedy process in which tenants can become locked out of their homes within three days of receiving notice. Once our strategy is set, it must be acted upon immediately. When you are so close to the brink, you hardly want long applications (or to listen to endless music while waiting on hold). That is why we connected Kendra to free legal assistance within 24 hours.

Reflection 

I can’t help but consider how eviction is a trap door into homelessness. When a single payment is missed, it leads to losing a home, which in turn can lead to losing stability. In turn, all other aspects of life – including school, work, and healthcare, among many others – become much more difficult. Eviction prevention is important because it means more than “helping with rent” – it means preventing the collapse of a life.

If you live in Dallas, here’s my challenge (to myself too): don’t treat eviction like a statistic. See it as a neighbor’s problem because it is. Then, exercise kindness + strategy + speed.