Gregory Robinson
A family of seven from Texas are facing homelessness after being ordered out of their home just days before their baby boy is due.
Amid a growing rental crisis in Harris County, Texas, Shatrice Brown and Steven Ragas, who already have five children between the ages of two and 12, are having to look for a new home.
The family will grow by one any day now, as Shatrice is pregnant with the couple’s sixth child and is due any day.
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Unfortunately, the mum is having to deal with the stress of not knowing if her son will have anywhere to sleep once he arrives.
Speaking to ABC7, she explained: “I have my children, so what do we do? We can’t be in the car. We can’t be outside. We have to do something.”
The couple told the outlet that they moved into an apartment earlier this year with the belief that they would receive financial help from a local agency.
However the agency said there was an issue with the documentation, which meant the couple were unable to afford their rent and they had to be out by Tuesday (1 August).
"Like any real man that's going through a struggle, we're broke and we're hurt, but we're staying strong and keep pushing," Steven explained.
"Even looking for landlords with individually-owned houses and everything like that," Shatrice said. "Trying to see if anybody will accept us or something, but a lot of people are saying, 'no.'"
A study by the Kinder Institute at Rice University analysed the renters crisis in Harris County and the findings are harrowing.
The 2023 study looks specifically at renting affordability and eviction, the cost burden on renters, the growth of investor landlords and the habitability of rental properties. The majority of renters spend around 30% of their income on rent, which the federal government says is what leads to someone becoming cost-burdened, which is a problem that eventually leads to eviction.
The agency found last year that 80,000 evictions took place, which was double from 2020.
More than six in 10 rental households are cost-burdened and when looking at housing conditions, the study found that nearly one in five structures in Harris County was graded ‘below’ by the Harris Central Appraisal District in 2021, the study found.
Plus, a quarter of Harris County’s single-family homes are rentals. According to the shocking findings, 'of Harris County’s 1,099,193 single-family rental homes, there are an estimated 10,385 that were owned by a small set of multi-state corporate investors.'
An additional 38,703 were owned by other corporate entities, such as limited liability companies.