Family of 5-year-old cancer patient tries to stave off eviction

HOUSTON - The law appears to be on the landlord’s side but Abel Becerra says he’s hoping for a little compassion.

The father of 5 can’t hide his emotions when talking about his family’s dilemma.

“Just everything that’s going on,” Becerra said while choking back tears. “The circumstances everything that’s going on because of my daughter.”

Becerra says his 5-year-old daughter has brain cancer.

It’s in remission Becerra says but he moved his family from the valley so they could be close to M.D. Anderson hospital.

The family has lived in their northwest Harris County home since last February.

They pay 12 hundred dollars a month for rent and say they once had a good relationship with their landlord.

“He’s a good guy we’ve prayed together he’s come to the house and prayed with my daughter,” said Becerra.

Things went bad Becerra says after the air-conditioning went out on a Friday in July.

He says he couldn’t wait for the landlord’s repairman to show up on Monday because he feared for his daughter’s fragile health.

“I told the landlord I had already fixed it and he’s like send me the pictures send me the e-mails,” Becerra said.

The landlord apparently balked at the 900 dollar repair bill which Becerra says he deducted from his August rent.

“Because we live paycheck to paycheck,” Becerra said.

That prompted the landlord to evict the Becerra’s and the judge agreed.

Becerra has filed an appeal hoping to at least have more time to move his family somewhere else.

He has 5 days to pay 12 hundred dollars for the appeal.

He also says he wants 54 hundred dollars returned to him that he paid the landlord when he moved in for a deposit and the last two month’s rent.

Becerra says he has to wait 30 days for the landlord to do a walk through and there’s no guarantee he will get any of that money back.

A non-profit called The Texas Organizing Project is assisting him.

“This man the landlord knows the family the condition of the 5-year-old girl with a brain tumor and how she’s in very delicate health and that he would resort to evicting them without some sort of compromise,” said Mary Moreno a spokesperson for Texas Organizing Project.

We spoke to the landlord who told us he has no comment other than to say the tenant has a right to appeal which he has.

The landlord also told us we do everything according to the lease and we follow protocol.

We’ll keep you posted on how all of this plays out.