‘Being pushed out with no help’
Longtime Third Ward residents say changes in the community leave no room for them
John McClenon returned from apartment hunting Wednesday afternoon and sat on the concrete stoop at the Barbee Street Apartments, his home of more than two decades.
He watched his kids run giggling around the courtyard, smoked a cigarette and chatted with passing neighbors. Among them were a retiree on disability, a father who had just gained custody of his son and a Vietnam
veteran recently returned from a monthslong stay in the hospital.
Now, each of them were being instructed to pack up and leave before the end of the month. The notice has left them scrambling to find accommodations under short notice and challenging conditions, while highlighting broader concerns about gentrification sweeping the historically black Third Ward neighborhood.
“We’re being pushed out with no help,” said Darrell Ray, a 62year-old resident of 10 years. Ray does not know where or how he’ll manage to move on an $800 monthly income, but feels he has no choice: “We got to go.”
Last Monday, a “Notice to Vacate” letter was posted inside the stairwell of the 16-unit apartment complex at 2210 and 2216 Barbee
Street informing residents that the property had been sold. The paper instructed them to move out by Feb. 10, when the new owner would begin renovations and cut off gas, electric and water. The deadline to leave has since been extended to Feb. 25, according to an email sent to residents by Eastwood Management Company.
“You’re in business to make money, I understand that — but it’s about how you treat people,” said McClenon, who said he has never been late or missed his $580 monthly rent payment. “At least try to be fair about it.”
When reached by phone, an employee at the management company declined to comment or give his name. The current owners, a California couple who did not immediately respond to an inquiry, purchased the property in 2018, according to records.
Ehab Shoukry, owner of Rocket House Buyers, is in the process of purchasing the property. He said the current owner should have given residents more notice. To make up for it, Shoukry said he is working with a local church to help residents find nearby affordable housing, has offered to give them financial assistance and will let them stay until the end of the month.
The residents had to be vacated because the property is in violation of multiple housing codes and must be fully renovated, a six-month process at minimum, Shoukry said. Rent prices will be raised to market rate after the costly repairs are complete.
“I don’t see this as gentrification,” said Shoukry, who lives in the area. “I see it as improving the property values, improving the look of the area, because a lot of these properties we’re buying are abandoned properties.”
Gentrification rising
Zoe Middleton, co-director of Texas Housers, said many people in Third Ward are longtime renters of market-rate affordable housing who have deep connections to their homes, neighbors and the wider community. Still, they struggle with housing instability as developers flock to the area, driving up costs and pushing community concerns to the side.
“The end result of all this is displacement, weaker social ties, negative health outcomes, a loss of history and culture and for some of the lowest-income renters, homelessness,” Middleton said.
Gentrification has accelerated in the past two decades, according to a 2015 study by Governing, an online publication that analyzes state and local government. In Houston, 35 neighborhoods have gentrified since 2000, compared to 14 neighborhoods in the 1990s, the report showed.
While every major metropolitan area in the U.S. has a shortage of low-income rental housing, a 2019 study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that Houston faces one of the most severe shortages. The metropolitan area has just 19 affordable and available rental units per 100 extremely low-income households.
In 2017, the median household income in Third Ward was less than half the citywide figure, with 37 percent of the neighborhood’s households living in poverty, according to a report from the Emancipation Community Development Partnership. Roughly half the population in 2017 rented at market rate and a quarter rented subsidized housing while the remaining quarter owned their homes, the report said.
Efforts by elected officials, community organizations and development groups have long been underway to study, address and implement strategies to curtail displacement, empower local residents and manage housing and infrastructure challenges. The Emancipation Community Development Partnership’s strategic framework recommended the production of 1,200 new affordable units in Third Ward in the next decade. The group’s goals include reducing housing cost burden and retaining legacy residents while creating a mixed-income community.
Fewer protections
Following the notice to vacate, at least one resident has secured an attorney to fight the order. Nekketta Archie of Archie Law said she has contacted the current and future property owners expressing concerns about her client being forced to move in haste. Additionally, the apartment conditions have not been suitable since July, Archie said.
Jon-Ross Trevino, an attorney with Lone Star Legal Aid, said the residents will have fewer protections if they do not have a written lease agreement. In general, a new buyer must honor the contract between the previous owner and the tenants if the length of the lease extends beyond the sale.
But McClenon said he has been paying month-tomonth. After a one-year lease with the current owners ended, he said, they did not offer a lease renewal option.
An oral agreement “doesn’t give the tenant as much protection,” Trevino said, but the landlord still must provide 30 days notice and follow the eviction process in court in order to remove residents. The federal moratorium on evictions only applies in nonpayment of rent situations.
Writing on the wall
When they bought the property three years ago, the owners promised to upgrade the place, according to several residents. McClenon said he was excited when someone showed him pictures of renovation plans — enough that he was willing to endure a slight rent bump. But nothing was fixed. Instead, the property was neglected and fell into disrepair with worn yellow siding and chipped wood. Residents left one by one — roughly half of the complex is vacant — but no one replaced them. Notices of citations from Houston’s building code enforcement gathered on the walls.
“If something broke, you better fix it yourself,” said McClenon, whose kitchen has been “raining.” He said he started to see the “writing on the wall.”
Frankie Johnson lived in the building across the courtyard for nearly a dozen years. He has since gone to stay with his sister, but on Tuesday returned to check on his apartment. The air conditioning unit was ripped from the window, the sink and other appliances were removed and it looked as if it had been “ransacked,” he said.
On Wednesday when he stopped by to pick up his mail, Johnson pointed at the brand new four-story building across the street — an affordable housing complex for LGBTQ seniors — and the new townhomes down the block on Eagle Street. For years, he watched the construction grow from the ground up and knew that the development would mean the demise of his own dilapidated residence, where tenants pay $580 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.
“I knew it would happen when they built that,” he said, gesturing at the new developments. “They’re trying to bring suburb people back in.”
Apartment application fees, background checks and large deposits make it difficult to find new housing, Johnson said, especially during a pandemic that has stripped people of jobs and income.
Marked by memories
Sheila Martin, who lived at the Barbee Street Apartments for 36 years, dropped by Wednesday afternoon to visit her nephew, a current tenant who has not found another living situation.
“I think it’s horrible,” Martin said. “I mean, where’s everybody gonna go?”
For her, the place is marked by memories — the middle of the courtyard where a volleyball net once stood, the grassy area where cheerleaders practiced. It was a safe haven for kids to play.
And it still is, said McClenon, who loves the peace and quiet of the area. While looking for a new place, he visited some apartments on nearby McGowen Street, but said he’ll likely have to move to the outskirts of the city where he was able to find a better deal.
“I have to do what I have to do,” he said.