A local San Marcos family transitions into homelessness

Hannah Durrance rests for a moment while packing up her home after her and her three children are evicted on November 6.

Hannah Durrance, 39, a former student of Texas State University as of this fall and a single mother, says that she was misadvised three times over the course of the four years she attended the university. She took three classes she now knows she didn’t need, and maxed out her student aid in the process. Now, her and her three children are facing homelessness.

Durrance made an appeal with the financial aid office, but was denied. She is a history major, and needs one class to graduate. November 6, she lost her home and now her and her three children are living out of her car. Durrance doesn’t blame the university for her overall financial situation, but feels that she should be reimbursed for the classes.

“If an advisor tells me, ‘here’s the class that you need to take’, and I take that class, then there should be something that reimburses me or allows me to take the class that I actually need,” says Durrance.

Each department at Texas State University has different advising policies, but students can file a complaint about misadvising from any department at the Undergraduate Academic Center. Durrance’s complaints are with the general advising center, the history department, and the liberal arts department.

Dr. Dan Brown, Dean of University College at the UAC, says that students who feel they have been misadvised should take two steps to correct the issue. The first is to contact the college advising center of their major. This step allows the department to review records kept of advising sessions as well as any other documentation. The second step is for the student to reach out to the dean of their college.

Brown said, “At the same time, if the student wishes, I would be happy to meet with students and discuss their concerns.”

He adds that students also have the option to take notes on their advising sessions and ask their advisors to sign it and make a copy for a more accurate advising records.

Durrance made an appeal to the financial aid office in the hopes that they could reimburse her enough to take the final course she needs, but was denied. Her complaints to the school were reviewed, but they were unable to determine if counselor’s were at fault.

Durrance doesn’t blame the university for her overall financial situation. She was one of hundreds of victims in a record-breaking flood in the San Marcos area last year. Damages to her home and belongings cost her thousands of dollars. This has been a major setback for her and she is still struggling to recover from the financial blow.

In May of 2015, floods reached a height of 43 ft., forced approximately 300 people into shelters, and destroyed over 1,000 homes. The floods caused nearly $33 million in damages to public infrastructure. Many were left homeless as a result of permanent flood damages to homes. A total of 23 people died in the floods. San Marcos received $25 million in federal disaster money but it took over a year for that money to arrive.

In the meantime, Durrance is working two jobs, but it’s still not enough to make rent without assistance. In October, she realized she would not be able to afford rent for the month of November. She considered taking her family to a homeless shelter, but had concerns that they would not be a safe environment for her children.

November 10, Durrance and her three children were evicted from their home for failure to pay rent. With no friends or family to turn to, they were forced to start living in their car. Fortunately, after only one night, anonymous donors paid for the family to stay in a motel. Each week, more anonymous donations have helped them to continue to stay there, but Durrance hopes she’ll be able to start paying rent on her own soon.

“I only get paid but once a month with one of my jobs and so I didn’t have enough income to pay for a room,” Durrance said.

The situation has negatively affected her children. Dawson, 16, is involved with local boy scouts and does volunteer work for the Sights & Sounds of Christmas event in San Marcos. Ryan, 14, is active in color guard, ASL Club, and a number of other school activities. Both have had to take on extra responsibilities including taking their younger brother, Bryson, 4, to and from daycare or the park and to babysit him while their mother works late hours.

Durrance says the youngest has experienced the most difficulty adjusting because he doesn’t understand the situation.

“He asks to go home a lot and doesn’t understand that we don’t have a home anymore,” Durrance said. “We had to leave behind all of his toys and his books and things and they’re in storage and he doesn’t understand what that means. That it’s not completely gone, but it’s just not here with us. And so he asks for things and gets a little upset and doesn’t understand why he can’t have his things.”

The motel room where they’re currently living is one small room. There are two beds in the room, and an air mattress they put on the floor in the evenings. There is a half-sized table for eating with two chairs. A triple slow-cooker takes up most of the space on the table. There is one sink and one small bathroom equipped with a shower and a toilet for the family of four to share. Durrance is dealing with her own difficulties in adjusting to the situation.

“As the mother, as the caretaker, you expect to be able to provide for them. You expect to be able to care for them and when you can’t, it’s hard to deal with that,” Durrance said. “You know, there’s a little bit of a sense of I failed in some way or I’m not doing enough, that I need to do more, but feeling trapped because I can’t really do much more. I would love to spend more time with them, but I know that in order to do that, I have to right now make a lot of sacrifices.”

The single mother tries to cook fresh meals for her children on the weekends when she doesn’t have to work as many hours. For Thanksgiving, she bought individual pies for herself and her children and they spent the day in the park before she had to go to work.

“It wasn’t the typical Thanksgiving dinner, but I think they had a good time,” Durrance said.

This has been a tough time for her family, but Durrance is trying to make the most of the situation. She believes it has taught her family to appreciate what they have and be more grateful to those who help them.

“It’s really good to know that I have support,” said Durrance. “That I have some people who are there and try to help.”

Durrance is unsure when she will be able to find an affordable home for her family again. She feels there should have been cheaper, more affordable housing options for families in San Marcos, and feels the city puts more money into college housing than it should.

Single-family housing prices went up 1.39 percent in 2014 and has continued to increase according to a report released by Texas A&M Real Estate Center. San Marcos city leaders are trying to promote affordable housing in the area.

Durrance now hopes to save money for the final class she needs in order to graduate. She believes the only way to bring her family out of poverty is to obtain her degree which will open doors to job opportunities that pay far better.

The final class she needs is a math class and costs around $1,500. She hopes to graduate by Spring 2017.