Residents ordered to leave apartment complex

Public housing facility sits in floodplain; city to judge safety amid ‘extensive damage’

Arnold Talbert considers his Memorial Drive apartment building safe.

Military flags still adorn the walls of his one-bedroom unit, the hallways outside are still clean and free of clutter, and a pinkish pool raft still leaned Tuesday on the 10th-floor balcony of the housing complex for low-income, disabled and elderly Houstonians just northwest of downtown.

Talbert, 58, loves the place. He renewed his one-year lease in July.

Now, he said he is afraid he won’t be allowed back into his home.

On Monday, the nearly 200 residents of the public housing complex at 2100 Memorial Drive were ordered to vacate the property by Saturday, a move city officials said was necessary to evaluate the safety of the building in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

The building sits in the 100year floodplain and has taken in stormwater at least three times in recent years — including Harvey — which officials say spread mold, and damaged electrical and plumbing systems, among other issues.

Houston Housing Authority President and CEO Tory Gunsolley said it’s still too early to tell what will happen to the property, which will likely need to undergo costly repairs to continue to qualify for flood insurance and be safe for habitation.

“There’s extensive damage

that’s far in excess of the maximum amount that the flood insurance covers,” he said.

Gunsolley said his agency does not currently have all of the money needed to repair — or potentially elevate — the 13-story building, and that the process to acquire such funding has not yet started.

‘More resilient’

He said residents would be transferred to other housing in the city, but could not say how long the Memorial Drive property will be vacant.

At a Tuesday City Council meeting attended by dozens of the complex’s anxious residents, Mayor Sylvester Turner attempted to calm their fears, saying officials would do what they could to reopen the building, should it be deemed safe after repairs are finished.

“We just want to make sure it’s more resilient the next time (a storm hits),” he said.

Still, many residents and their neighbors in the Sixth Ward said they were nervous the city would simply redevelop the complex into a property for a different use.

“I’d like the city to ensure that this does not become a convenient excuse to convert (the complex) to a different use and monetize that land appreciation,” said Ryan Boehner, who lives near the building.

Gunsolley said Tuesday night that the Housing Authority has no intention to sell the complex or pursue anything other than affordable housing at the property.

Housing key to recovery

The residents’ worry follows recent criticism of the city’s previous, often lackluster affordable housing initiatives, many of which were uncovered through a 10-month Houston Chronicle investigation that found $130 million in local taxes intended for such projects were mismanaged by city officials in the last decade.

Turner’s administration, for its part, has made housing — particularly for the elderly, those with special needs and those with limited incomes — a staple of recovery efforts after Harvey, which displaced thousands across the city.

Still, residents said they’d become particularly close at the Memorial Drive complex, and had leaned on others in the area during the worst of the storm.

“We love this building,” said Gene Walker, 58. “There is no other building like this for low-income people.”