{"id":285,"date":"2017-05-09T10:45:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T10:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/no-place\/?p=285"},"modified":"2017-06-13T20:16:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T20:16:04","slug":"a-lifelong-west-dallas-resident-is-staying-until-shes-forced-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/no-place\/2017\/05\/09\/a-lifelong-west-dallas-resident-is-staying-until-shes-forced-to-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lifelong West Dallas Resident Is Staying Until She’s Forced To Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one West Dallas neighborhood, hundreds of families have been facing deadlines for months to move out of their houses. They rent inexpensive homes from a company called HMK Ltd. After getting eviction notices last fall, many of the 305 families in the neighborhood left. Some of the community’s oldest residents, however, vow to stay until the very end.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 The latest:<\/strong> Landlord offers to sell rental homes to longtime residents; judge extends move-out deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Pearlie Mae Brown, a West Dallas native, turns 81 in June. That\u2019s the same month she was told she’d have to leave her home. And possibly, the only neighborhood she\u2019s ever known.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like my little house,” she says. “I would like to stay in the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

She leans against a chain-link fence, where clothes are draped to dry, and she looks at her small yellow house with chipping paint. Over her shoulder, new apartments are going up a couple of blocks away.<\/p>\n

There are tears in her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my life, and I don\u2019t want it to be taken away from me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"West<\/p>\n

Pearlie Mae Brown, 80, stands outside her home. She\u00a0has lived her entire life in West Dallas. Photo\/Allison V. Smith<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Born inside a church<\/h5>\n

Pearlie Mae has lived in West Dallas her whole life. This six-block neighborhood is known as Gilbert-Emory. Her grandmother settled here nearly a century ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born just a block from where I live,” she said. “About four houses down; there\u2019s a church.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was born inside that little church.<\/p>\n

Everywhere she looks there\u2019s a memory \u2014 like the aging blue house down the street where a family friend lives now.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I remember this house,” she said. “My mother used to come here because these was her friends that used to live here. At first they were living in there. And then they taken it as a store. Then they taken it as a place for the young people to come and dance in there\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bennie Kilson lives in that blue house. Everyone calls her Auntie. She also has to move out next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been here a long time,” Kilson said. “Most of my grandkids were born down there in that house. And so that will pretty much tear them up, destroy them, because we have to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We don\u2019t want this neighborhood to be forgotten.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pearline Brown Harper, Pearlie Mae Brown's daughter<\/div>\n
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Timeline:\u00a0Hundreds In West Dallas Are Losing Their\u00a0Homes<\/h6>\n

Last fall, a West Dallas community of 305 families living in HMK Ltd. properties learned they would all lose their housing. Learn more in the timeline below.
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