Delivering Water, Volunteers Are Shocked by Extreme Poverty

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Trash is everywhere. Autism runs oddly high. The neighbors, suspicious at first, just want basic services. 

Roosters crowed and piglets squealed on a foggy morning recently in Sandbranch, the long-neglected Dallas County community, when the North Texas Conference showed up with desperately needed water. The Annual Conference’s UMCOR truck was tightly packed with water jugs and dispensers for the 100 or so residents who have no running water.

The Rev. Eugene B. Keahey, Mount Zion pastor, greeted the truck as it parked. Rev. Keahey has become spokesman and advocate for the residents, who also contend with leaking septic tanks and no trash pickup. Their wells have become contaminated, the water taking on a yellowish tinge and odd odor.

“This is an opportunity to bring awareness that we have been here 137 years and have not been offered any amenities that we are accustomed to in America,” Rev. Keahey said. “We have suffered long enough. As the last active freedman’s town in Dallas County, it is time to take a more proactive stance to bring the people positive change.”

The southeast Dallas County area hit the news recently, bubbling up in a bitter campaign for county commissioners. The NTC isn’t the first, and may not be the last, to bring water to the rural neighborhood as a stop-gap solution. North Texas United Methodists stepped up when Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins sought help for the area, between Seagoville and Wilmer.

The Worst in U.S.

As NTC volunteers began delivering water over the nine-block area, the Rev. Marji Bishir Hill of the Center of Missional Outreach called the Sandbranch conditions the worst she’s seen in the U.S. Even colonias on the U.S.-Mexico border now have water, sewer and garbage service, she said. But in Sandbranch, some don’t even have electricity. And, Rev. Hill said, “Trash is everywhere.”

In addition to Jenkins and Rev. Hill, the volunteers included NTC Bishop Michael McKee; the Rev. George Battle and Boots on the Ground, both part of the NTC’s Zip Code Connection; environmental lawyer Mark McPherson of Christ UMC in Plano; and Rick Hill, Walnut Hill UMC’s director of church and community relations and Rev. Hill’s husband.

Rev. Hill said the residents were suspicious of the volunteers at first, “like, who is this now?” But once they found out the reason for the visit, “they were happy to get the water.” The Zip Code Connection volunteers, themselves from the impoverished 75215 ZIP Code in South Dallas, brought pickups that eased the delivery of the heavy jugs and dispensers immensely, Rev. Hill said.

An autistic guide

They were also aided by Demetrius X. Blair, better known as Peoples, a Sandbranch resident who is a high-functioning autistic. In fact, autism is prevalent in Sandbranch, the Rev. Keahey said.

“At first I wasn’t so sure about Peoples, but he ended up being incredibly valuable to us as he knew what properties were abandoned, who was home and how to get them to come out,” Rev. Hill said.

“Our last stop was Peoples’ dilapidated house. He was excited to get the water dispenser. He told us he was born there and had lived there since the 1950s,” Rev. Hill said.

It’s complicated

When asked what the residents of Sandbranch want, Rev. Keahey responded without missing a beat: “A water bill. Every month. This may sounds strange to you, but for us it is a huge thing. We do not want a handout but a hand up. We do not want you to give us anything. We will pay for it. Afford us the opportunity that you give everyone else

But it’s complicated in Sandbranch, which lies within a floodplain and whose residents, Rev. Hill says, are not allowed to fix up their homes — even if they had the money to do so. For instance, the church, Rev. Keahey told her, would have to be raised 10 feet before repairs would be allowed.

The residents blame the nearby wastewater plant for the contamination of their wells; the county blames the hogs, horses and goats that many keep. Either way, it woul

d cost Dallas County millions to hook Sandbranch to water and sewer lines, making a buyout a less costly solution.

Some residents did take a buyout in the early 2000s, but complained they were paid too little, if not flat-out cheated. Mount Zion hosted the signing of buyout papers and found itself shunned, as though it had broken trust, Rev. Hill was told. And that’s why those who remain, many of them elderly and disabled, are skeptical of any talk of taking money to move.

“It’s hard for them to leave,” she said. “They’re friends with each other; it’s such a small, tight-knit community.”

“Even though the conditions are terrible,” they prefer having the room for livestock to the idea of “living in a one-bedroom or efficiency apartment in a crime-ridden city,” she said. “An urban apartment or HUD house would be completely different from the lifestyle they are used to.”

And Sandbranch’s poverty is extreme. So extreme that even the Zip Code Connection volunteers, from poverty-stricken 75215 ZIP Code in the South Dallas/Fair Park area, were taken aback.

When the Hills ran into them after the distribution at a nearby Dairy Queen, one of the volunteers remarked, “The people here are worse off than we are! They deserve all the help they can get."

The Rev. Dr. Sheron C. Patterson serves as director of communications for the North Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Linda S. Johnson contributed to this story.

SANDBRANCH IN THE NEWS

The Dallas Morning News: Why a Plano Oil Lawyer is Taking on the Sandbranch Clean Water Case for Free

WFAA: Water Dispensers Delivered in Sandbranch

The Dallas Morning News: Sandbranch Residents Hang On Despite Lack of Basic Services

NTCUMC: In Dallas' Backyard, NTC Brings Clean Water to a Suffering Communit

Facebook: The Lost Community of Sandbranch

D Magazine (1985): The Lost Community of Sandbranch