HOUSING AUTHORITY READY TO DEMOLISH MORE THAN A THIRD OF CLAYTON HOMES AFTER HARVEY FLOODING 
112 of the 296 apartments at Clayton Homes have been deemed “uninhabitable” by its owner, the Houston Housing Authority, which is now seeking to demolish them. The affordable-housing complex tucked between Hwy. 59 and Buffalo Bayou north of Runnels St. in the northwest corner of the East End was flooded after Hurricane Harvey; subsequent investigations conducted by local researchers led by the New York Times and by the authority found numerous health and safety problems in the residences, including festering mold and high levels of E. coli. Submitting a demolition request for those units allowed the authority to receive and distribute “tenant protection vouchers” that will allow their residents to relocate to any voucher-accepting unit in the city, a spokesperson for the agency says: “Since Hurricane Harvey caused extensive damage to many of HHA’s public housing properties, housing options within HHA’s public housing program are now exhausted, which is why residents are receiving vouchers.” The agency says it is also helping Clayton Homes residents not eligible for the vouchers as well to find new homes — with relocation assistance services and one-time payments — and that it is refunding rents collected for periods when homes in the complex were uninhabitable. Photo: Apartments.com
Sign up for the Newsletter
Well, that’s convenient (for everyone but the people who have to move). Clayton Homes was not long for this world anyways with the pending reconstruction of the inner downtown freeway system.
How convenient for the HHA to deem these homes “uninhabitable”. So now these homes will be demolished and sold to developers to build luxury townhomes instead, right?
So for homeowners you just cut the sheetrock, and rebuild all of the stuff at 3 feet and go down the road? My feeling is that every house that flooded has some trace of E. Coli and mold. Pretty soon you’ll see mold lawyer commercials suing every contractor that worked in these places. Doctors will soon get in on the action too. Hell, back in 2000 when mold lawsuits were born my framer had a magnetic door sign for “mold testing and remediation” in the back seat of his pick-up. Get ready for it again.
Spory: You’re talking about what a private business does with their apt building, or what a home owner does with their house. The government has unlimited money (yours, thanks!) so they can just say “Eh, it’s ruined. Demo time. Give these people here fat checks to go find something”
I think Al is right. This area North of Minute Maid is ripe for redevelopment.
DOT is demo’ing the Elysian Viaduct to put an ‘avenue’ on grade…
This could bring attention to James Bute Park, the McKee St. bridge and Frost Town, the 1830’s settlement that was originally there.
The Clayton Homes Project is SO 30 years ago!
Bring back El Barrio Alacrán!
Cody, I think you’re mistaken. These HHA residents are getting a one-time payment, I doubt it will be much of a check and they will be SOL and out on the streets soon adding to Houston’s already large homeless population. HHA has always been very hard to get into with few resources and a large waiting list. Houston’s apartment glut of a couple months ago is gone with flood victims taking units in apartments and hotel/motels. It will be difficult for these folks to find housing and usually when supply is limited the price, of course, goes up.
I agree with Al, the government will sell this property to developers. Houston has a history of not spending its allocation of Federal money for housing the poor. I doubt you will see much new HHA housing either.
Both Al and movocelot are wrong. All of these are scheduled to be torn down to make way for the realignment of IH-69 in a few years, so there will be no redevelopment other than razing them and putting an elevated freeway above where they once stood. As Mike wrote, this is very convenient for TxDOT.
Soo… is TxDOT going to spend that extra money they don’t have to pay anymore to raze these and the devalued property on park improvements over the freeway re-route?
I’m sure the city is being compensated well and this just adds to the coffer for the “high opportunity” neighborhood housing plan Turner is pursuing.
Well in 2-3 years Texas Dot is reconstructing I-69. So, the residents would have had to relocate.
Well, this is one way to reduce the number of poor households – by getting rid of the “house” part.