Plan for migrant shelter revised
Houston facility would house just 16-, 17-year-olds
The Austin-based nonprofit that has sought for months to open a Houston shelter for unaccompanied migrant children now is proposing to house only 16and 17-year-olds, the city announced Thursday.
Southwest Key Programs, which sued the city last year over permitting issues, may operate as a “residential” facility once it rectifies several issues flagged by city inspectors at its proposed downtown location at 419 Emancipation.
Those include missing fire sprinkler heads, minor electrical and plumbing repairs, and the removal of locks found on windows that would be used for emergency escapes and rescues.
“The initial application for a certificate of occupancy did not satisfy the city’s regulatory requirements and was inconsistent with our values of keeping families together,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a news release. “My objec-
tion was and always will be about the children.”
Though President Trump formally has ended his administration’s policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border under a “zero tolerance” immigration policy, not all children have been reunited with their families.
Southwest Key initially proposed to hold 240 immigrant children aged 17 and under at the Emancipation building that previously had housed homeless families and those displaced by Hurricane Harvey.
In a statement, Southwest Key said it still intends to house more than 200 immigrant children at the facility — called Casa Sunzal — while providing medical care, counseling and educational services.
Southwest Key told the city it will hold residents “capable of self-preservation without physical assistance,” according to Turner’s office.
The nonprofit already has addressed the inspection issues referenced in Turner’s statement and is awaiting its certificate of occupancy, spokesperson Neil
Nowlin said.
“The vast majority of youth in our care are fleeing extreme poverty and violence in Central America, leaving their homes and families behind to seek safety and a more secure future,” Nowlin said.
A mayoral spokesperson said the city has not yet been asked to inspect the repairs, a necessary step before issuing a certificate.
The nonprofit is amending its permit application months after city officials said it should have applied for an “institutional” building permit.
Though Southwest Key initially was granted a certificate of occupancy as a residential “dormitory/shelter,” the city restarted the permit process after officials said they had received incomplete information and that Southwest Key should have declared the building use as “institutional.”
Southwest Key Regional Director Marisela Saldana said in a November declaration that the 16and 17-year-olds will be sheltered “until either a suitable relative or other adult assumes responsibility for them or they are deported as a result of immigration proceedings.”
In its federal lawsuit, filed last September, Southwest Key claimed the city was manipulating its permitting procedure and failing to use due process when it invalidated previously issued permits.
Turner and other elected officials have opposed the plan to house immigrant children in Houston. At a June press conference, the mayor said he was in no rush to issue city permits at the facility.