The Texas Saga: How I (Barely) Survived Being Homeless 

That’s right, you read the title correctly.

Summer, 2021, I did not have a permanent address.

Just a fair warning before diving in, this is a fairly lengthy and complicated story, even though I will be leaving out most details. This is for my own enjoyment, and anyone else’s who enjoys a story or living vicariously through other’s trauma.

Now, to be clear and upfront after that title, I did not live on the streets. I had hot showers every day, a full belly, and a car packed full of my belongings, including my cat. However, there were several days where my roommate and I truly had no idea where we were going to lay our heads that night. 

May 2021, I packed up my apartment in Minnesota where I had lived for the last year and a half or so, and prepared to make the 16 hour road trip to Austin, Texas. My car was stuffed to the gills and my cat, a surprisingly well behaved car companion, was leashed and tossed in as well. One of my new roommates, Sofia, flew to the Minneapolis airport to make the journey with me. I picked her up with a loaded car, and we drove through the night until we finally crossed the Texas border. 

Once there, I had to stay in a hotel by myself for a few days, which was a nice breather before launching into the upcoming adventure.

But eventually,, we made our way to our first major stay of the trip.

Now, don’t forget the title of this blog. I moved to Texas without having a permanent home picked out yet. Myself and my new roommates, who I had been able to live with for a couple of months prior, planned on house-hunting in the time-span of a month. Our goal was to find a place, get approved, and move in without too much of a wait.

We enlisted the help of two of our male friends, so there were a total of 5 of us, 3 girls and 2 guys, sharing a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. 

While we definitely got some house-hunting in, the most memorable part of the month was us having a great time in the house with each other. We spent so much time exploring, staying up late to talk, cooking together, watching movies, skating, and of course, working remotely together. 

However, by the end of the month, we still had not been accepted for a house. We’d been rejected from every application we’d sent in, save one, and they were taking a long time to get back to us.

Worried about our timeframe, we anxiously looked for the place we could next lay our heads down to rest. We found a brand new listing in a small story-book town where we’d actually stayed before for a group trip. It had a pool, which for 3 stressed out 20-somethings, was like finding a massage chair in a mall after a full day of shopping. 

We booked the place, and drove the hour-ish trip down to our new temporary home. This marked the end of the guy’s stay with us, and us three women went on our own.

I caught a small bug while in this Airbnb, I attribute it mostly to the stress of this time frame. 

That whole week was a failed attempt at relaxation by or in the pool, but we were also on and off the phone with our real estate agent all week trying to get an answer on our final application. We needed to know if we got the house or not so we could plan our next move.

By the middle of the week, our agent had offered an additional couple of hundred dollars per month to the leasing company we’d sent our application to, and also threatened to report them to the board for leaving us without an answer for so long.

At this point, our third roommate flew back home for a couple of weeks. This left myself and Sofia to fend for ourselves in what was one of the most stressful times of our lives. 

Our first attempted stay was a miserable fail. Sofia arrived a few hours before me, and called me while I was on the road to inform me of wet towels in the washing machine, hair in the bathtub, and bugs all along the baseboards. 

Once I arrived, we inspected the area together. 

Aside from the above mentioned atrocities, there were LIVE bugs crawling around, no wifi (which was a lack of double checking on my part), dirty toilets and sinks, and a rude and unhelpful host. 

We messaged our host with photos of what we had found, and she responded with implications that we had somehow caused this mess since it had been 3 hours since check in. Remember, Sofia arrived before me, and I was the one who had made the booking. 

We ended up spending many hours on the phone with support, who even called our host on our behalf and received the same unfortunate attitude. He helped us get a refund for the rest of our stay and find a new place to stay. 

However, when we checked out the next morning and packed up our cars, we had not received confirmation from the host of our new Airbnb. Sofia and I sat in iHop, cat in my lap and dog at our feet, anxiously sipping our bottomless hot coffee (which probably only made our anxiety worse), and waiting to hear if we would have a bed for that night. 

Finally, angels from heaven blew their glorious trumpets, and our new host confirmed our reservation. 

She informed us that she just had some people who had stayed for about a month checking out that day, and she would have a cleaning lady getting the place ready. She wasn’t sure how she felt about the service this lady provided yet. The idea of another dirty Airbnb was not appealing, but knowing that this host was already aware of potential issues was reassuring and with limited alternative options, we said that was fine and we would help her out if we could. 

Relieved we would not be sleeping out of our cars that night, we payed for our meals, scooped up our pets, and headed to Walmart for a quick grocery trip.

When we eventually arrived at our new Airbnb, the cleaning lady who our host had mentioned was still there, along with her boyfriend. We slowly began to move things in as she said she was about done, but as soon as we stepped foot inside it was clear it was far from spick and span. 

Neither of us felt comfortable walking around without shoes on, so Sofia took a broom and swept the whole floor. The pile of dirt was incredible, especially considering the floor had been nearly done drying from a mop when we’d arrived. 

She sent a photo of this to our host, who was appalled and very helpful. She and Sofia ended up working out a deal where Sofia would clean multiple areas of the home, and we would be compensated.

This was one of the most stressful times of the trip. I was barely eating, Sofia was barely working. We were both falling into a depressive state there, and when we stepped outside we were guaranteed to see someone yelling at someone else in the street. 

We did establish a tradition during this time which still goes on today. You see, even after the weekend we felt like we hadn’t had enough weekend. By Tuesday we were burnt out again. So we’d pick up some drinks and either watch a movie, talk, or do some random activity together. We call them “Sam and Sof Nights” and are only skipped when one of us is out of town.

However, something amazing happened a few days into our stay.

I was in a Discord voice chat, trying to talk to some people to relieve the stress, when a notification popped up in the corner of my screen.

We’d gotten an email from the leasing company.

WE’D BEEN ACCEPTED!

Sofia and I screamed and jumped up and down, hugging and double checking my computer screen to make sure we hadn’t misread anything. The people in voice chat had to check their ear drums to make sure our excitement hadn’t deafened them, then kindly congratulated us.

It was a great feeling. We knew where we would be long term. But we couldn’t move into the house for about another month, so we were still stuck Airbnb hopping for the time being.

By the time we left our current Airbnb, we found our way to one that would allow us to stay for a good 3 weeks. This would take us all the way up to our move-in date, so there was finally an end in sight.

However, that was far from the end of our troubles.

Sofia and I experienced yet another homeless few hours while we waited for our final Airbnb’s check in time. We went to iHop again (this place truly holds a special place in my heart) and Myra, my cat, managed to terrify a small child who happened to look up and did not expect to see a cat peering back at her

Afterwards we went to a mall, walked around, got some attention for our pets, and finally made our way to the new Airbnb.

Thus began the worst part of our adventure so far.

Neither of us had been the ones to book this place, our third roommate found, booked, and communicated with the host initially. 

According to the listing, the host was supposed to send us final access information 24 hours prior to check-in, however, the address he gave us was not right. We called and texted multiple times and finally got a hold of him, he said he always gave out the wrong address at first (???) and gave us the correct one as well as instructions to get there.

When we did arrive, which was a place we’d driven by several times trying to figure out where we were supposed to go initially, the gate was locked and once again it took us forever to get a hold of the host. 

So we sat in the scorching Texas heat with our poor animals (we had our ac blasting but still) for another 10 or 15 minutes before he finally made his way outside and buzzed us in. 

We were already frustrated, and meeting this guy as two single and alone young women set us on edge. He claimed he wanted to meet our animals, and spent way too long standing around in the parking lot talking to us while we tried to take our luggage out of the car. 

He then began leading us to the door of the place we’d be staying. In a hot, tired, confused, and frustrated daze, we followed him. The layout of the area was a little confusing at first, so I assumed he just wanted to show us where to go so we wouldn’t be stuck wandering around forever.

In my head, if he was planning on taking us to the door of the Airbnb, then say farewell and leave us to get settled in, that would be alright. Unusual, but not completely outrageous. Neither Sofia or I had ever had a host check us in personally, we’d always had a hands-off check-in. 

However, almost in slow-motion, he brought us to the door. I watched as he keyed in the code, opened the door, and just as I thought he had gone as far as he possibly could without truly pushing the boundaries of appropriateness, he stepped inside.

I stood frozen for a moment before he eagerly invited us to enter after him, which we slowly and reluctantly did. Because of this, our immediate first impression of a place we were going to be sleeping for the next several weeks was that we were not completely secure. Obviously, I knew from the beginning he would have the code, it’s his property and he’s the one who set and gave us the code. However, seeing him easily invite himself in with no respect to boundaries was jarring. 

It didn’t stop there. He proceeded to show us through every room of the house, even going so far as to show us how the light switches worked, where the bathrooms were, and what was in the cabinets in the kitchen. He made a comment about the bedrooms, saying there were three beds but two of them were twins and the third was a queen, so “I’m not sure how ya’ll are gonna work that one out.” That comment of course freaked us out, why was this middle aged man making comments about our sleeping arrangements?

He also told us he was divorced, which we did not need to know, and that this was the apartment he and his family had lived in while they were together. It was essentially a time capsule, with pictures on the wall, child’s drawings in one of the bedrooms, and old jewelry and clothing in the closets we wanted to use.

Finally, he left and we began to look around for ourselves. I went into the bathroom and as I closed the door behind me, I saw what I can only describe as a pile of black hair behind the door. I was disgusted and told Sofia about it. 

We began to take a closer look at everything, and concluded the area was quite disgusting.

Because of our previous issue where our host had accused us of creating the filth we had discovered, I immediately texted our host (let’s call him Scott), and leaving my cat in what would be my room, went down to my car to start bringing in the rest of my belongings. I specifically told him what we had found, and asked if the cleaning crew could come back and get everything taken care of. 

As I returned from my car with luggage in tow, I saw Scott returning. He carried a bucket, a mop, and a few other cleaning supplies. Shocked and praying this man was not returning to our Airbnb, I decided to pretend I didn’t see him and walked in ahead of him. No such luck, he followed me in. There was no “may I come in”, no greeting, just a “Where’s the mess? I can take care of that right now for you.”

I awkwardly showed him the hair behind the door, the thick collection of dirt and dust under the couches, and Sofia pointed out the thick collection of dust and hair on the vents and the appliances, and the dark hair she had found on the bedding and towels.

As Scott continued bustling around and cleaning up, Sofia and I awkwardly agreed to ditch and go to a nearby outdoor bar to wait for him to finish up.

We had a couple of drinks, went over what had just happened, called our friends to tell them about it, and when we finally got a text that Scott had finished up, we slowly made our way back to the apartment.

After weeks of non-stop stress and anxiety, we were not mentally prepared to handle this situation. When we returned to the Airbnb, we found only some of the things we had pointed out had been addressed. The dust that could have only been accumulated over a few months remained untouched. 

The place just needed one of those good old once or twice a year deep cleans. I was appreciating my mother more and more for making my siblings and I wipe baseboards and vents. I remember going to sleep in that place completely uncomfortable. I did not want to get under the sheets, as I believe they were the same ones he and his ex wife had slept on, and done… other things on. Aside from the cleanliness, I feared that our host seemed to have no issue just welcoming himself over, and especially after we might have pissed him off with our pickiness (he didn’t have many reviews for this location specifically, but his other properties did generally have good reviews).

I slept with a knife and mace by my bed those 3 weeks we stayed there, never touching the sheets or mattress more than absolutely necessary.

At some point, we asked if Scott would provide us with a deep cleaning service. We went back and forth on this a lot as a group, but ultimately decided that though it was a cheap location, at the very least we were entitled to a clean place to live. It was fairly evident to us that this man, a divorced, middle-aged lawyer with probably a lot of work on his plate, had been likely doing the cleaning himself, and he was not good at it.

Scott agreed to paying for a deep cleaning service if we found a company we were happy with. We looked around and finally called one with great reviews. We ended up talking on the phone with someone, and explained the situation to her. She was very understanding and personable, and we scheduled a time for them to come over.

They arrived in the morning, and told us it would take them 5-6 hours, so essentially our entire work day. When we came back and checked towards the end of the allotted time, they were still hard at work, and we had to leave and come back again a few hours later.

By the end of all of it, while the place was still not perfect, it was much better and we were much more comfortable in the space. However, we had an issue with Scott again.

Since it had taken the cleaners longer than originally anticipated, it was going to cost Scott more than he had originally planned for. We got a call from the cleaning service and the lady we spoke to explained that Scott had been very difficult when she’d called him about the price, and had given her a lot of grief. She asked if we would be willing to just vouch for the work done and let him know we were happy with it. She was kinda about it and sounded genuinely distressed, so we agreed.

However, what happened next was probably the peak of our entire stressful summer.

Scott texted us and let us know that he was planning on stopping by the Airbnb to check out the work done after work that day.

At the time, we were at a Library, finishing our own work and dealing with the situation. We informed him we would be back between 7-8, and if he stopped by before then, when we were not present, we would be okay with that. We told him we were not comfortable with him coming over when we were in the apartment.

He did not reply for some time, and when he did, he completely ignored our previous message and told us his meeting had run long and he would have to stop by around 8:30-9. 

Up until this point, we had been communicating with him via personal texting. However, with this, we decided to move back to Airbnb chat where we knew their support would have record of the creepy conversation in case they needed to step in.

Finally back at the Airbnb, we sat down to write our reply. Including screenshots of our text conversation, we sent Scott a very firm and direct message. We were happy with the cleaning service, and we were not comfortable with Scott visiting us three single women so late at night. He had already made himself too comfortable, and we wished to go no in-person contact, as we were used to dealing with. 

I believe we said a few other things, but this finally seemed to get through to him. He replied fairly promptly and agreed to not interact with us any further. This was good to hear, but we were still extremely nervous. He’d been so pushy and annoyed, what was stopping him from entering unannounced?

However, this seemed to be the end of our issues with him, until we both left equally poor reviews for one another.

Oh well.

Finally, our stay came to an end, and we were able to move into our new home! 

Since then, a million different things have happened to us as a group and separately. Life moves fast and its tough to keep up with sometimes. However stressful this summer might have been, it was the foundation of a lot of good which came, a life experience I value, and a great story to tell. 

I hope everyone has the opportunity to be homeless, just like I did.