Housing complex residents fault city over evacuation order

Communication poor amid calls to leave home

Anger, confusion and suspicion still run rampant among the 200 or so residents of 2100 Memorial Drive.

Residents of the affordable housing complex just west of downtown Houston on Monday were given notices to vacate the building by Saturday, which the city’s housing authority said was necessary to inspect for damage from Hurricane Harvey.

The sudden order set off a panic at the complex, which houses disabled, elderly and low-income residents.

At a Tuesday City Council meeting, Mayor Sylvester Turner said officials mishandled the evacuation, saying the quick notices were “not the right way to do it.”

Motives questioned

At an emergency meeting called Thursday by city officials, many residents were still angry about what they felt was a lack of communication from the city Housing Authority and other groups.

“Much of what happened could have been handled with forthright openness,” said Paula Sitter, 64.

Others questioned the city’s motives in evacuating the complex. The apartment building is in the 100-year floodplain, has flooded multiple times, and may have had its electrical systems severely damaged during Harvey.

But many residents said that their rooms were fine, and that the city was simply using the damages as a pretext to redevelop the property — an accusation that residents said has been bolstered by poor communication from the city.

“That is simply not true,” said Tory Gunsolley, Housing Authority president and CEO. Nor could the Housing Authority redevelop the building if it wanted to, he said, because of restrictions on the land that run until 2025.

“Even if I wanted to do something other than affordable housing,” he said, “I’m not allowed to.”

Thrown into chaos

Gunsolley said residents would not have to cover the costs of relocations to other housing that the city has found for them.

“I understand that no one wants to move,” he said. “But it’s not safe.”

But many of the roughly 150 people at the meeting Thursday said the city’s response only compounded the stress and anxiety of being kicked out of their homes.

Gunsolley said the building’s electrical system is dangerous, and he did “not want to cause a panic” by telling residents about the threat.

But many said the complex was thrown into chaos by the sudden order to vacate.

“You did cause a panic!” yelled multiple people in the crowd, which an hour into the meeting had grown restless and hostile.

Hours after the meeting, Gunsolley said he understood the residents’ complaints about his agency’s communications.

“That has clearly been an issue,” he said. “And we need to be better than that.”

No ‘exact replacement’

But, he said, residents need to understand the danger of the Memorial Drive building, and that their new living arrangements might not be perfect.

“At the end of the day, I’m not going to be able to find another downtown building with the same rent on Memorial Drive,” he said. “I wish that I could, but there isn’t an exact replacement.”