Senior caught in the middle as TxDOT faces criticism for lack of empathy

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For 45 years, Dora Overton of Forest Hill lived in the shadow of the great freeway, Interstate 20, bustling day and night just yards from her front door. She and her family could hear the sounds of the road from inside the one-story brick house. The road was part of their life, like a strange member of the family.

The great highway that begins in South Carolina and ends 1,539 miles later in West Texas is about to get even bigger. The portion that runs through southern Tarrant County where she lives is 10 lanes long.

Overton, a 78-year-old widow, is on the way.

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This sad story begins the Friday after Thanksgiving 2020 when a postman delivered a certified letter containing an eviction notice announcing that the great freeway will rise above his banks and swallow up his house in condemnation. On the certified mail receipt where his signature should have appeared, someone drew a line.

Overton did not receive the letter that Black Friday because she was in a hospital with COVID-19. But eventually she got to see the letter, and that’s how her nearly three-year battle began. His house and his tiny quarter of an acre were suddenly lost in bureaucratic jargon. His property is now part of Parcel 805 and identified in legal documents as Lot 17, Block 21 of the Forest Wood Addition.

There’s no doubt about it, but Overton is going to lose his home. The roads proposed as a right-of-way will eventually pass through what was once his living room. The expansion is part of what is called the Southeast Connector. The Texas Department of Transportation says the $1.6 billion project is the largest in Tarrant County history. Nobody can stop it.

Hundreds of owners lost what they had for the project. Under the Texas Landowners Bill of Rights, landowners like Overton have the right to receive adequate compensation if your property is taken for public use.

That’s the catch.

Overton has extenuating circumstances. Government employees, like customer service employees forced out of the script, tend to do poorly when everything isn’t clean and tidy.

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At first, Overton was lost. I felt completely helpless, she told The Watchdog. They weren’t listening to me. They had an agenda.

She went to several lawyers about her fate, but they wanted too much money paid to her. By chance, she heard about Denton’s attorney Michelle Jones’ conviction.

Jones takes her case for free because she told me it reminded her of her elderly mother who wouldn’t know what to do in a similar situation.

In fairness, for good reason, you need to widen the roads, the lawyer said. You have to have infrastructure. You must have power lines. I’m not trying to stop a project. I’m trying to find a way to evenly bring her into something similar to what she had before.

Lawyer Michelle Jones helps Dora Overton, a 78-year-old widow in Forest Hill, who has to leave her home on May 11 to make way for the I-20 expansion. (Juan Figueroa / Personal Photographer)

Overton agrees, saying we need the improvements.

The problem is that the money he was offered wouldn’t give him enough to get a similar house, and getting a mortgage at age 78 isn’t easy.

At a higher level, the issue is how people, especially the elderly, are treated in such a confusing situation. In this small case, the lawyer said, I just don’t think the process is designed to help the Miss Overtons of the world.

The attitude of TxDOT, she says, is that the holdouts are at fault and they are greedy.

Describing a consultant, hired by TxDOT to handle the relocation, the lawyer said: They are indifferent. They toughen up. There is no consideration. They say, it’s not my problem.

When I asked them who was treating her like this, Overton and his attorney named Terry Khammash of Array Technologies, who is TxDOT’s relocation consultant.

I spoke to Khammash and asked her if the process of evicting people from their homes had toughened her up.

No, she replied. The reason I sincerely don’t think so is because the only reason I continue to do so is that over the past 20 years I have been able to help an overwhelming majority of people improve their situation. . That’s the reason why I still do this job.

She added that in 20 years, Overton is the only one to complain.

TxDOT officials ignored my request to speak to them. An assistant attorney general representing the state in the court case also declined to comment.

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Overton has two issues holding off this deal. The first was that four years ago she took advantage of a Tarrant County home rehabilitation program that provided her with foundation repairs, new carpeting and paint. The cost is free as long as she lives in her house for five years.

Since she was forced to leave early, she would have to pay, starting today, $8,000 to clear a related lien.

The other problem is a second mortgage that she and her husband took out 15 years ago. He died a year later and she pays him $630 a month. She still owes $70,000.

Relocation consultant Khammash declined to talk about the privilege. About mortgage debt, she said: The rule is if I find you with a mortgage, I have to leave you a mortgage. The state cannot absolve you of the mortgage. The state cannot release you from your debts.

The house opposite has already disappeared. Overtons is there, but unknown people have placed boundary stakes in his garden.

The attorney says it’s a fight for, perhaps, an additional $35,000 added to the total, which would help Overton find a similar 1,600-square-foot home like the one she owns.

Hurry up. His stress is through the roof. A friend, Helen Epps, told me, let’s try to keep her calm.

The lawyer asked TxDOT for an extension. But it was not granted. Overton doesn’t have the money to move yet. The high road is about to swallow him up.

As of now, she must be out of her home by May 11.

This is a property tax questionnaire. Here is the link. Scroll down. https://www.dallasnews.com/help/are-you-smarter-than-the-average-d-fw-consumer-part-ii/

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