Residents of complex left damaged want answers
City officials say owner collected rent, but didn’t attempt to begin repairs
In a flood-ravaged city where debris piles have become a marker of misfortune, the residents of Houston’s Rockport Apartments would appear to be among the lucky.
Two weeks into cleanup from Hurricane Harvey, the courtyards of their sprawling complex remained nearly devoid of the mounds of mattresses, cabinets and damp sheetrock that pimpled so much of their southwest side neighborhood.
The air thickened, however, as Susana Ortiz opened her front door earlier this week. Inside, globs of green and white mold crept up the walls like a putrid moss.
Ortiz is among hundreds of tenants scrambling to figure out their next steps as city officials converge on a property where management was, as of last Friday, charging rent for flooded apartments it had not even begun to repair.
Further complicating matters is that some of the tenants are living in the country illegally, making them ineligible for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I don’t even know what to do anymore,” Ortiz said Monday, as neighbors, activists, attorneys and city officials traded conflicting information about tenant rights and when residents would need to vacate their units. “I just want a solution. Like, what can I do?”
No one seemed to know the answer, as some residents were under the impression they needed to leave that day, while others said they were told to be out by Thursday.
Les Little, the complex owner’s attorney, insisted management wanted to begin repairs but was not evicting anyone.
“We don’t want anyone living in unsafe or unsanitary conditions, and that’s why we’re encouraging them to leave and making it as easy as possible for them to leave,” Little said.
Such chaos has not been unusual for renters trying to navigate Harvey’s aftermath, but the situation at this complex, city officials agree, is extreme.
Not only have residents been living for two weeks in flooded apartments, but the owner did not immediately begin repairs after city inspectors visited last Friday, said Nancy Brewer, who manages the Department of Public Works and Engineering’s habitability division.
“The difference is that the other apartments have actually taken steps to remediate the problem,” Brewer said. “They’ve pulled out the flooring, and they’ve cut the Sheetrock, and they’ve got the furniture out.”
Tornado trouble
Longtime Rockport tenants are familiar with difficult disaster recovery.
At least nine of the sprawling complex’s buildings at 8500 Nairn have remained vacant and boarded up since a tornado struck over Memorial Day weekend two years ago, according to city records, even though civil court documents from a 2015 breach of contract lawsuit show the owner received at least $7.7 million in insurance payouts.
Little said the owner, Rukmini Investments LLC, repaired 82 of the apartments damaged two years ago and, before Harvey struck, was planning to eventually rebuild the rest.
Tenants whose apartments were spared by the tornado carried on in the interim, until water began seeping in during the early hours of Aug. 27.
Nine days after those six inches of floodwater came and went, José Zamora and his wife had resumed life in their first-floor apartment, where they cared for several of their neighbors’ small children.
One napped last Tuesday afternoon in a hammock strung across the living room, as others toddled between pieces of flood-soaked furniture.
Zamora, 65, was in communication with the management office about repairs, and had been told to sit tight.
“They’ve told us they’re waiting for FEMA to arrive first … to assess the damage in each apartment,” he said in Spanish.
“We hardly received any damage,” Zamora added. “We feel good here.”
City inspectors arrived last Friday to find repairs still had not begun, even though management was collecting September rent.
“They did not take action to return rent checks until a day after I demanded they do so,” Houston Housing Director Tom McCasland said.
‘Don’t have anywhere to go’
By Saturday morning, rumors about pending evictions began circulating among residents.
Laura Romero lives on the second floor, but said management told her first-floor neighbors they had to be out by Monday, per city orders.
“They’re worried because the man told them they had to leave by today,” Romero, 30, said in Spanish. “They don’t have anywhere to go.”
Ortiz, on the other hand, heard the deadline was Thursday.
“My neighbors, they said the office had said that we had to move. And then I’m like, how can I move in five days?” said Ortiz, 20, whose family pays $575 a month for their one-bedroom apartment. “I need more days from that.”
Little, the attorney for Rockport’s owner, said he was unaware of any deadline to vacate.
“I’m not there. I don’t know what management is telling people,” Little said. He added, however, “We’ve never given anyone a deadline that I know of.”
Deadline or not, residents’ worries were heightened Monday, when the Red Cross, Lone Star Legal Aid, city officials and immigration advocates converged on the apartment complex with food and offers of legal and housing assistance.
“Most people are scared. People are scared to talk, and they think the people of the city work for Immigration,” said Ortiz, who is a citizen. “That’s why they don’t report anything.”
City health and housing officials are slated to be at the complex Wednesday, McCasland said, to ensure tenants are living in safe conditions and secure alternative housing as needed.