They each have one side of the duplex. With twin beds on either side, it was cramped but it worked for a while. That was until the person they were renting from couldn’t afford to own the place any more. Over the last couple of months, they've been forced to find a new home. Not accustomed to rooming with other people, they decided that this time they would try to find housing they could each afford on their own. They did (kind of), but now their finances are tighter than ever.
The two were featured in an Observer story last May about trying to get by on a fixed income during a housing crisis. And we are in a crisis. According to Child Poverty Action Lab, Dallas lacks more than 33,000 affordable rental units for people making at or below 50% of the area median income – people like Hernandez and Sanchez. According to rentcafe.com, the average rent for an apartment in Dallas is about $1,592.
Hernandez and Sanchez had their own places at the Oakridge Apartments in Oak Cliff. Hernandez had lived there since 2020. Sanchez had been staying there since 2006. In the summer of 2022 the complex was sold to new owners who said they’d be raising the rent, effectively pricing Hernandez and Sanchez out of their homes. At that point, the only place they could find that they could both afford was a boarding home in the city called El Shaddai for about $650 a month each. While at the boarding home, the two got to talking and decided they would try rooming together at a nearby duplex, but that lasted only a handful of months.
Now, Sanchez, 70, is at a place called The Oaks. It’s a Dallas Housing Authority property for people 62 and older. She pays about $1,050 for rent there. Meanwhile, Hernandez, a 49-year-old blind man, is staying at a place called Forest Dale in North Dallas. It costs about $1,100 a month. They each receive about $1,200 a month in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The two are now spending between 80% and 91% of their fixed income on rent. When they lived together at the duplex, they split the rent of about $1,500 a month.
Helping them navigate the situation is Lisa Marshall, a local housing advocate who started a group called Fighting Homelessness. She’s supplementing Hernandez and Sanchez’s rent with $400 each, but they still have barely enough for their other expenses every month. Marshall is hoping to help Hernandez find a job so he can have a little more wiggle room, but it’s been difficult.“This is the face of people entering into homelessness." – Lisa Marshall, Fighting Homelessness
tweet this
“We’re supplementing with donor money so that they can eat,” Marshall said. “There’s just nothing left.”
She said she’s looking for any other source of income that may help the two out. “Once donor money is gone, I’m not sure what we’ll do,” she said. Of Hernandez and Sanchez, Marshall said, “This is the face of people entering into homelessness. … These are not people that were in an encampment somewhere, for God’s sake. They were living independently on their own on very very fixed incomes – SSDI – and it’s not covering rent anymore.”
Although they live in different areas now, Hernandez and Sanchez still talk on the phone just about every day to check in on one another. Sanchez said she likes her new place but that it’s a little too quiet for her.
Hernandez is a little less optimistic about his new living situation. He said the water heater doesn’t seem to work all the time, and his AC has been out recently. “So, it’s hotter in here than it is out there,” he said. “I’m not comfortable here no more.” He wishes he could be back at the duplex with Sanchez even though they had their ups and downs sharing living quarters. “We didn’t have our space so we would get on each other’s nerves and stuff,” Hernandez said. “We used to get into heated arguments, but I still worry about her and I still care about her,” he said.
Hernandez is already looking forward to the expiration of the lease at his current apartment, and he’s hoping to convince Sanchez to find a new place with him to split the rent. He’s not sure if she’ll go for that, however “Being on my own, there’s nothing affordable with my income,” he said.
“I’m frustrated,” he said. “Even if I’ve got to live with the rats, with the junkies and prostitutes, as long as it’s something I can afford because this is just too much.”
With his rent supplemented by Marshall and Fighting Homelessness, Hernandez said he’s now paying close to what he paid when he previously lived on his own. “Everything is twice what it used to be so I’m hardly left with any money,” he said.
According to the October National Rent Report by Apartment List, rents in Dallas have increased by 21% since March 2020.
Hernandez said he’s optimistic about the future, but it can sometimes feel like it’s all out of his control. “I have mixed feelings and mixed emotions about all this that’s going on,” he said. “I feel like we’re ping pong balls because we’re going back and forth, back and forth, this way and that way, and, man, I’m tired.”
