Ashley Hernandez is clearly torn about her next move.

Her notice to vacate from HMK Ltd., a landlord of inexpensive housing who is kicking out about 300 tenants, sent her into a frantic search for a new home. The 24-year-old is three months pregnant, with a 2-year-old son and a fiancé who pays the monthly rent of $575 for a small, three-bedroom wood frame home.

Through many streets of West Dallas, with its jumble of brick homes and sagging wooden houses, there’s rising anguish about the need to quickly move after the mass evictions.

"No es justo," says Leonor Toscano

Most of HMK's rental homes are in the 75212 ZIP code, which covers West Dallas. On Sept. 20, HMK sent a letter to the city's director of code compliance and the county's top health office, notifying them that the rental houses were coming off the market. Hundreds of renters must move.

Renters and community leaders went scrambling. Some have sought to find translators to help them with eviction notices that came only in English. Others plan to attend community meetings, such as one at 11 a.m. Saturday, in a last-minute attempt to better understand their tenant rights and to find ways to allow children to remain in their neighborhood schools.

“It’s not fair and it’s stressful, and I have another baby on the way,” Hernandez said with her hand on her belly.

Still others have moved so fast to find new shelter that a few HMK houses have already been vacated and torn down.

"No es justo," said Leonor Toscano, Hernandez's loving abuela, as she sat on the porch of her turquoise home surrounded by about a dozen young members of her family this week, ruminating on Hernandez's turn in fortune.

A rental home in the 1800 block of Life Avenue will be taken off the market, says HMK Ltd. Ashley Hernandez lives there and worries where she'll go next. (G.J. McCarthy/Staff Photographer)

Toscano, the grandmother, rattled off the locations of five houses that have been torn down a few blocks away from her own home in the Los Altos neighborhood.

Hernandez tried to pay her rent earlier at HMK's offices on Singleton Boulevard. But company officials refused to take her money and told her, she said, that they were out of the rental business.

Her rental house, Hernandez said gracefully, “has its flaws.” The light blue wooden structure with banana yellow trim sits on a street with broken sidewalks. She says the floors and foundation have shifted so much that a back door won’t open.

Getting repairs takes “a lifetime,” she said.

Gentrification

The site for most of the potential evictions, West Dallas, is fast-changing. Gentrification has brought in millions of dollars in new development since 2012, starting with the $182 million Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. It stretches over the Trinity River and spills traffic onto Singleton. There, the neon-lighted cluster of restaurants known as Trinity Groves has sprung up.

All the fresh construction contrasts with some of the city’s most striking pockets of poverty. Some lots, for example, are appraised at a mere $9,600 by the county. And they have houses on them. The median household income can run as low as $17,100 in some areas — well below the federal poverty level of $24,000 for a family of four.

A closed cobbler's shop in the 1100 block of Singleton Boulevard shows the past commercial life of small businesses in the little economy of West Dallas. (G.J.McCarthy/Staff Photographer)

But all around HMK's offices are signs of change. Across Singleton, the main drag of West Dallas, towering new apartments shoot up above a sign that reads: The Austin at Trinity Green. The boulevard once bustled with small businesses. A shuttered cobbler's space with shiny black tile still has a cheery sign that reads: "We fix your shoes while you wait."

Down the street, La Estrella Panaderia beckons buyers to come in for its "extenso surtido," an extensive selection of fragrant pastries. The bakery with a 40-year history features a star on its terracotta exterior.

On Friday, HMK’s beige-on-beige management offices were full of Spanish-speaking renters, trying to learn what options they had. In the parking lot as they departed, all said they had to leave by the eviction date on their letters.

The HMK rental offices have little signage. A bilingual paper in the window explains how tenants/arrendatarios must make payment by the sixth of each month or face a late fee of $75. There is also a letter detailing the service charge when freezing pipes need repair.

"We appreciate your support of HMK and your years of tenancy; we tried to do our best. The City of Dallas is forcing us to take this action."

HMK didn’t respond to questions about the eviction process.

In a lawsuit last month, HMK was accused of being "the most prolific slumlords in Dallas County" by two West Dallas tenants. Joanna Pena and Sergio Rendon sued HMK in Dallas County court for forcing residents to endure "unspeakably squalid conditions," according to the petition.

But last month, Khraish H. Khraish, a co-owner in HMK, denied allegations and said his company doesn't prey "on the most vulnerable."

The Dallas City Council has discussed toughening its housing standards on single-family and multifamily residences for months. Last week, in a 12-1 vote, the council approved code inspections of single-family rental homes for the first time in the city’s history.

Days before that vote, a "notice to vacate" letter went out telling residents that their leases are being terminated “as soon as legally possible” and that city officials were to blame.

“You have three days to vacate the premises from the legal end of your lease term,” the letter says. “Failure to vacate may force us to commence eviction proceedings. We appreciate your support of HMK and your years of tenancy; we tried to do our best. The City of Dallas is forcing us to take this action.”

It is signed by Khraish of HMK.

Rosa Lopez has worked in West Dallas for over two decades, finding low-income homes for first-time buyers and assisting in community development through the nonprofit Vecinos Unidos, United Neighbors. Now, she's worried that people won't understand their rights.

Apartments under construction at the intersection of Singleton Boulevard and Crossman Avenue show the gentrifying change coming to West Dallas. (G.J. McCarthy/Staff Photographer)

Many tenants in West Dallas are unauthorized immigrants, Lopez said, and they are especially fearful. “They are afraid to come home and find the door locked with possessions outside,” Lopez said.

The community meeting Saturday at the Anita Martinez Recreation Center at 3212 N. Winnetka Ave. will cover issues such as gentrification, keeping children in the same school, and the multiple steps in a lawful eviction, said Ronnie Mestas, a leader in a collection of neighborhood associations called West Dallas 1. Attorneys, school district officials and code compliance officials are expected to be there, as well as Mayor Pro Tem Monica Alonzo.

“This will be a know-your-rights meeting,” said Mestas.

Private attorney Michael Hindman plans to be there. He represents Pena and Rendon and said he’s seeking to make the suit a class action.

"Where am I going to go," asks 77-year-old Fernando Gonzalez

Some of the HMK homes are on Nomas Street in front of the recreation center. Mexican immigrants there said they had heard about the letters and pointed to a field where the soil looked plowed over and where a house once stood.

Simon Zuniga, a 55-year-old construction worker from San Luis Potosí in Mexico. Zuniga said he shares his tiny beige wood-frame house, with its dilapidated porch, with three other people.

He’s said his roommate got an HMK letter.

“They are going to throw us out,” he said, eyes growing wide. “We just have to find a new place.”

Fernando Gonzalez, 77, is a retired construction worker who lives with his wife, Yolanda, in a two-bedroom HMK rental on McBroom Street. “Where am I going to go?” he said.

He said he’s trying to get his $300 deposit back.

As Gonzalez stood on his front porch, Mestas came by with a flier about the meeting. “We are going to fix this problem,” Mestas said in Spanish.