We’re Californians who moved to Texas after experiencing homelessness. We’ve been here less than a year and can’t wait to go home.

Dannielle: I’ve moved to Texas twice in the last five years.

Eiman and I are still married, but we’re separated. We’re really good friends because we parent our 12-year-old daughter together. I also have two older kids from a previous relationship.

Eiman and I lived in the same apartment building in Riverside, California, for a long time.

Eiman: I really appreciated the convenience of California. Everything was close by. There were also a lot of job opportunities, even if they weren’t the greatest. Plus, you were so close to the mountains, close to hiking trails, and near the beaches.

Dannielle: One of the things I loved best about California was the access to diversity. I met so many people from different countries and learned about their cultures, food, and lifestyles.

But starting in 2019, the rising costs in California became very challenging.

I worked at a health and wellness resort. It was a good place to work, but it got to the point where if I missed even one day of work, it would impact my finances drastically.

Money was the main stressor we were dealing with. I felt like I wasn’t able to really live my life because the cost of living was so high in California.

Eiman: I was working in warehouses for a while, before going into security.

I had to get a second job to survive, and even that didn’t leave me any money left over to take my daughter out to do something fun.

Affordability drew us to Texas

Dannielle: I left California with my daughters for the first time in June 2021. My mother is originally from Texas. Three years ago, my stepdad retired, and he and my mom relocated from Mira Loma, California, to Henderson, Texas.

She said they went to Texas because it was more cost-effective. So, I got online and started looking. The houses were so cheap, and they were huge! Everything was really low-cost.

We were all excited. My goal was to be able to purchase my own home one day.

Eiman and my son weren’t able to come to Texas the first time.

I initially moved in with my mom in Henderson, which is in East Texas. When we got to Texas the first time, we were blown away by the beautiful nature. There was no smog, no pollution. It was really beautiful.

My older daughter and I started applying for jobs immediately because we wanted an apartment of our own.

We got jobs, and my daughter and I both worked full-time. On the weekends, we would drive to Tyler, which is about 30 miles from Henderson, and look at apartments. We knew we wanted to leave Henderson because the demographic is primarily retirees.

But my eldest daughter started getting depressed. It was just too much change for her. My mom and stepdad are great people, but it was difficult living with them.

Plus, the weather in Texas is so brutal in the summer.

We went back to California a few months later

Dannielle: We went back to Riverside in Fall 2021. We were happy to be back home. We were able to pick up our old life very quickly.

Eiman: I missed them when they were in Texas, so I was happy to see them.

But I faced some life challenges around that time, and I ended up becoming homeless.

Dannielle: I was hoping that Eiman would have found an apartment by the time we got back, but he wasn’t able to. So, we stayed with his mom off and on for a few months. But that was difficult, too, and my younger daughter and I ended up in a shelter.

I had been homeless in California before. People in my family have been homeless there. The rising costs knock you down. But in California, we had access to resources that helped us get back on our feet.

I was able to get my job back in Riverside and then get back into our old apartment in Spring 2022.

We stayed in California for another two years. But at the beginning of this year, my oldest son moved into our apartment, which put four of us in a one-bedroom. My older daughter and I were constantly working to pay the bills.

So, I started talking about moving to Texas again because I was dreaming of affordable homes and affordable apartments, thinking life there might be a little easier for all of us.

Eiman: It felt like an opportunity to live somewhere inexpensive, save money, and permanently resolve my housing issues long-term. But that’s not what we got.

We moved to Texas a second time in April 2024

Dannielle: We all moved back in with my mom in Henderson, Eiman included. We were planning to work and save up to eventually put a down payment on a house or move into a decently-sized apartment. But Eiman and my stepdad didn’t get along, so we had to speed up our apartment search.

We found an apartment in Tyler. The logistics, however, have been difficult.

We pay for all our utilities here, which I’ve never done in California. All of our bills are behind because I haven’t been able to find a livable, long-term, full-time job. I’m about to lose the car I finance.

I’ve worked two jobs here in Tyler already, and they are the worst experiences of my life.

And I haven’t gotten many job interviews here in Tyler. It seems like a lot of the jobs are part-time. Plus, I went from making almost $18 an hour in California to $11 here.

Eiman: We thought everything was going to be cheaper here in Texas than it has been.

We didn’t do our due diligence before moving

Dannielle: For all the negatives of Texas, there are some positives. Some people really do have that Southern hospitality and are so nice.

We’ve also met a lot of people who aren’t originally from Texas. It’s nice to talk with them and realize we’re all experiencing the same struggles after moving here.

The nature and clean air are my favorite things about Texas.

But we are definitely not planning to stay in Texas. We just want to get back home to California once our lease is up in May.

We are excited to go back, but we’re apprehensive too. We want to make sure we have enough money to get started again.

But we’d rather deal with the high cost of living and have the convenience. It’s home.