Kristie Kenyon is staying with a former co-worker while she figures out what to do next. Some Kyle renters with low incomes say they are living in substandard houses because there seems to be no better choice. (Photo by Jonathan York)
by JONATHAN YORK
The house was sinking. In the back there was assorted litter, cat poop, a mattress. They had to call a plumber and come up with the money themselves; only later the landlord deducted it from rent.
“They just don’t want to bring this place up to code,” said the woman who shared this house with two younger generations of her family. “I can’t afford anywhere else,” she said. “We’re lucky we get a roof over our head.”
Finding this place took her a year. “It’s a good house,” she said. “I don’t want to say anything bad because I’m afraid of losing my house.” For the same reason she declined to give her name.
A family friend, Kristie Ken-yon, was sitting in the dirt and playing with stones while little boys ran up and down the yard, pointing skyward when a helicopter passed.
Kenyon, 39, was staying here because her kids went to schools in Kyle. She owned a single-wide trailer and needed a place to put it. “Nobody’s got land,” she said. “This house across the street, I know the owner. It went from $400 or $500 a month to $900. ... Everything is going up inside the city limits. It’s hard to find a place on low income.”
She was from Iowa, where once she went to school in a building that was part of the Underground Railroad. Then her parents moved to Arkansas. There was no work in Arkansas. The last time her trailer had a spot, the landlord told her to get out before the end of the month.
