Within days of Dallas Area Interfaith’s (DAI) stunning housing code victory, the owner of hundreds of single family rental homes in West Dallas, HMK,  sent eviction notices to 305 tenants ordering them to vacate the properties by the end of the month.  Dallas Morning News accuses HMK of making the tenants “pawns in the company’s scorched-earth fight against tough new housing policies.”

DAI, in collaboration with the Wesley Rankin Community school and center, organized a meeting to brief hundreds of worried renters about their rights as tenants, the basics of eviction law and to pressure the City of Dallas to intervene on tenants’ behalf.  Mayor Pro Tem Monica Alonzo, along with the Assistant City Attorney, assured renters that extra-legal evictions would not be tolerated.

The next day, the State District Judge Ken Molberg ordered the Dallas landlord to temporarily halt the mass evictions.  Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings exhorted affected residents to keep trying to pay rent, and if refused by the office, to set the money aside for when it would be.

Mayor Mike Rawlings Feels 'Sleazy' After Recording of 2015 Meeting with West Dallas Landlords Posted Online, Dallas Morning News

Dallas Judge Temporarily Halts Mass Eviction, WFAA 

Hundreds Facing Eviction Scramble to Find Housing, NBC-DFW

Dallas Must Not Let Callous Landlords Win, Dallas Morning News [pdf]

West Dallas Tenants Vent Fears of Eviction, Dallas Morning News [pdf]

Father and Son Accused of Being Dallas’ Most Prolific Slumlords are Evicting Tenants from 305 Homes, Dallas Morning News [pdf]

Families Confused, Unprepared for West Dallas Mass Evictions, Dallas Morning News