Name: I just wasn’t thinking it’d happen to me, said one of the people in the free clinic.
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I just wasn’t thinking it’d happen to me, said one of the people in the free clinic.

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAs the United States waited for five states to decide on the next president, Donald Cameron sat in his car waiting for someone to help him stay in his home.He had not worked for four months: He was let go from his job at an oil and gas processor back in April because of the pandemic, and the odd jobs he picked up (washing cars for $10, temporary staffing positions) were nearly gone. He used his money to pay for food. His apartment — where he’d lived since moving to Houston from Georgia, just before Hurricane Harvey hit — sent him a notice to be out by Nov. 15.“Man, it’s so crazy — like just everybody got a story about how it’s done affected them,” he said. “I just wasn’t thinking it’d happen to me.”On HoustonChronicle.com:Cameron, 39, was behind four other cars in the parking lot of Harvest Time Church in Greenspoint. With funding from the Harris Count Precinct One Foundation, the South Texas College of Law hired 10 recent graduates to provide eviction assistance to anyone who showed up, free of charge. By 9 a.m., as Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen and the South Texas dean gave statements to the press, over three dozen cars had shown up, directed into five lines by deputies.Cameron rolled his window down, still waiting in line, thinking about the election. He hadn’t voted. He knows it’s important to make your voice heard, but he can’t see it making much of a difference for him either way. Neither candidate, he thought, would put food on his table. Any plan would take years and probably would not trickle down to him.A few days ago, a volunteer called him. After months inside, trying to apply for jobs from his phone with no luck, he cracked. “I don’t know how to survive right now and worry about voting,” he snapped. “I think y’all would have a better understanding if you would come down to people and help them.”He caught himself, and apologized.On HoustonChronicle.com:Sara Vallie and Carolina Barrera, both South Texas College of Law grads, tag-teamed legal aid at a tent at the head of Cameron’s line. Vallie, 27, manned the (sometimes malfunctioning) computer; Barrera, 33, leaned as close to the windows as she safely could and asked questions, translating for tenants who only spoke Spanish.Barrera and Vallie helped tenants fill out a declaration from the . The agency enacted an eviction moratorium in September: Anyone who lost income due to coronavirus, made under $99,000, had tried their best to pay and would be homeless without their current home could not be evicted if they presented a signed declaration to their landlord and the court. The moratorium runs through the end of the year — but does not provide any relief for tenants or landlords, so tenants will still owe their rent and landlords will still have to pay bills. There have still been thousands of evictions across the country: Some tenants don’t know about the moratorium, some landlords ignore it and some eviction judges have unevenly applied it.More for youBy the time it was Cameron’s turn for help, the main parking lot was full and cars wrapped around the building. One woman and her husband had five children at home, all afraid of being homeless. Another man had been waiting for an hour, his eviction notice on his passenger seat next to a Houston Food Bank schedule (He had circled the one he went to every week: The Cathedral of Saint Matthew on Airline Drive). A woman had gotten a ticket for expired registration on the way to the event. She couldn’t take it in for an inspection: It would fail. She couldn’t afford the ticket, or the repairs.On HoustonChronicle.com:When Cameron pulled up, Barrera greeted him and asked if he’d applied for rental assistance (His landlord had not opted into the first round of help through Houston-based nonprofit BakerRipley, but had reached out about perhaps participating in the second round). Did he need the number? He did. Vallie looked it up it for him.Vallie printed out a copy of the CDC form and handed it to Barrera, who reached through the window to Cameron.“You get two copies, one for you and one for your landlord,” Barrera said. “We can send it to your landlord if you’re worried.”“You do both, so they know we ain’t playin.” He paused. “I know you got to keep going, but if we’re in a pandemic—we in this stuff for eight months — why anybody gotta be paying?”More InformationHow to get help:-Apply for COVID assistance at by midnight on Friday, 11/9-If you are behind on rent or need help with the CDC declaration, call South Texas College of Law at (346) 250-1069-If you have received an eviction notice, call South Texas College of Law or Lone Star Legal Aid at (800) 733-8394.-The CDC declaration is here:-Contact Houston Volunteer Lawyers at:Landlords had to pay lenders, Barrera said.“I’m saying — I know, and you got to pay your bills anyway. But nobody got the money.”Barrera handed him his signed declaration from the CDC. She and Vallie wished him luck and brushed away his thanks. Cameron looped around the parked news vans and drove out of the parking lot. A dozen cars waited in the line to take his place.sarah.smith@chron.com

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAs the United States waited for five states to decide on the next president, Donald Cameron sat in his car waiting for someone to help him stay in his home.He had not worked for four months: He was let go from his job at an oil and gas processor back in April because of the pandemic, and the odd jobs he picked up (washing cars for $10, temporary staffing positions) were nearly gone. He used his money to pay for food. His apartment — where he’d lived since moving to Houston from Georgia, just before Hurricane Harvey hit — sent him...

I just wasn’t thinking it’d happen to me, said one of the people in the free clinic.

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