KILLEEN, Texas — When Killeen's Friends in Crisis homeless shelter shut down, a tent city formed outside thanks to donations from the community. The shelter is scheduled to reopen, but the tent city residents were ordered to leave so the area could be cleaned.
The community stepped in again, offering temporary housing solutions to the people displaced by the order.
One Killeen couple looking to help invited about half a dozen former tent city residents to stay at their private property on 10th St.
"One night, I went and got them yesterday," Kathryn Evans, who owns the home, said. "They stayed last night and now here they are having to leave again."
Less than 24 hours later, a neighbor filed a complaint with code enforcement officials and the couple was ordered to cease and desist for violating city zoning regulations.
"These people are not minding their own business. This is my property. I ought to be able to do what I want to on my own property," Evans said.
According to Killeen's zoning regulations, Evans' home is zoned as a single-family residence.
The former tent city residents were given until Tuesday to leave the property, leaving them scrambling to find somewhere to go yet again.
"I'm just trying to get my life straight and get my family back together," David Wayne Lohman Jr. said. " That's all everyone here is pretty much trying to do."