Apartments finally set to be demolished

‘Eyesore’ apartment complex to be replaced with new housing project

The blighted Crestmont Village apartments in South Acres, where tenants suffered with leaky roofs, rodents and raw sewage gurgling up from the ground, finally will be torn down today.

The blighted Crestmont Village apartments where tenants suffered with leaky roofs, rodents and raw sewage gurgling up from the ground finally will be torn down Saturday.

Community advocates say the demolition and another planned soon are part of an effort to bring quality, affordable housing to the South Acres community.

“It means a lot,” said Charles Cave, a public transit safety manager who is president of the Crestmont Park Civic Association. “It means the beginning of transforming a tremendous eyesore and hazard to the community into, hopefully, a new, vibrant housing project that will improve and enhance the community.”

Preliminary plans call for construction of new apartments for seniors on the seven-acre site at 5638 Selinsky Road.

Next door, at 5602 Selinsky, the Hurricane Ikeravaged Crestmont West apartments will also be torn down and rebuilt as The Pointe at Crestmont, with 192 new units funded by public loans and tax credits.

A few blocks south, the behemoth Park Texas Apartments is set for an upgrade of its 587 units.

Cave said he is looking forward to the revival of “good, quality, affordable housing” in the southeast Houston community.

Crestmont Village became a symbol of Houston’s housing neglect in September 2015 when CenterPoint Energy shut off power for 15 days for nonpayment at the all-bills-paid complex.

The situation quickly evolved into a community

crisis, leaving people already living in derelict conditions without essential services. The issue galvanized community activists, social services agencies and the city, which had sued complex owners two years earlier for operating a nuisance.

History of problems

The problems plaguing Crestmont Village had come to public attention even earlier.

Denise Vaknin and Abraham Vaknin purchased the property in early 2011 under the corporation name Village Crestmont Houston.

A television news report in March 2012 documented apartments with mold, backed-up sewage, rats and other unsafe living conditions.

After receiving more than 200 calls from residents requesting services, the city sought a court order in June 2013 to force the owners to bring the crumbling complex up to code. The temporary injunction was effective for most of 2014, but the decaying apartments remained in disrepair. A judge signed a permanent injunction in June 2015.

Then the lights went out. The city stepped in, paid the power bill and went back to court to seek a final order to shut down Crestmont Village.

The last 200 residents moved out by October 2015.

The same month, a state district judge condemned the property and approved demolition.

By that time, the city had shelled out about $605,000 on Crestmont Village, but razing the place would not come immediately.

Late last year, the Houston City Council approved spending another $348,000 to demolish the complex. According to the Harris County Appraisal District, the property has 18 building and all are “unsound.”

Looking ahead

A city announcement about Saturday’s teardown described Crestmont Village as housing “previously plagued by dangerous living conditions, squatters and illegal activity.”

Mayor Sylvester Turner said he refused renovation recommendations because “the people in the community have been waiting a while” for the complex to meet its end with a wrecking crew.

“It will eliminate an eyesore,” he said in a news conference this week. “It was the subject of a lot of media attention because of the deplorable living conditions.”

Even when the complex is razed, its impact on residents will continue in litigation.

In February, six extenants sued the former owners, claiming that the “implied warranty of habitability” was breached by landlords leasing uninhabitable units and “failing to … make repairs and maintain the premises.”

The lawsuit, which requests class-action status, seeks more than $1 million on behalf of at least 100 people believed to have rented apartments from March 2011 through October 2015.

The six former tenants — Alicia Johnson, Johnny Johnson, Annette Williams, Clinton Menefee, Essie Jones and Virginia Cezair — contend that they and others sustained economic damages and mental anguish through the landlords’ alleged deceptive trade practices and fraud.

This month, the former landlords filed an initial response denying all of the lawsuit’s allegations.

The lawsuit was amended Friday to add the current owner, Selinsky Palms Apartments, which purchased the property in October 2015, as a defendant. State and city records indicate the new owners are planning to build a complex for seniors.