Houston, Texas real estate development, home buying, landscape, and design

Reflecting on the recent attention drawn to State Rep. Hubert Vo’s tenement-quality apartment complexes — as well as three more local value-priced apartment structures that burst into flames over the last few days — local blogger Slampo says the quintessential Houston residence is finally getting the attention it deserves:

We’ve long contended—in barrooms, on Metro buses, while walking our dog late at night—that the signature Houston residence is not the River Oaks mansion or the Heights cottage or the Westbury suburban rambler or the Randall Davis “loft” apartment or the Pulte Home in the Outer East Jesus Subdivision (we just love the ones with paddle boats on the man-made “lakes”) but rather the one- or two-bedroom unit in a two-story complex, usually but not always situated outside The Loop, that was constructed anytime from the late 1960s through mid-’80s and whose population typically has gone through one or more pronounced demographic shifts: say, from all-white to mixed to mostly black to predominantly Hispanic . . .

Slampo also makes note that Houston Chronicle readers online have taken up reporter Matt Stiles’s suggestion to identify similar “problem properties” around town:

The finely detailed and descriptive comments affixed to Stiles’ posting confirm that there’s nothing like the topic of “crappy apartments” to arouse the local populace. You don’t have to be a really perceptive sort to see that many of the bright-line social divisions in Houston—over crime, schools, “changing” neighborhoods—neatly align with the divide between apartment renters and owners of single-family homes and townhouses (and while race and/or ethnicity is a factor in these divisions, class is the underpinning). This is partly due to the proximity of subdivisions to sprawling complexes, a phenomenon that we assume is somehow linked to the city’s lack of zoning (but one that, come to think of it, we’ve noticed in other, newer-type Sunbelt cities). But mostly it’s because landlords allow these places to go down the toilet and become magnets for crime and gangs.

After the jump, that list of low-cost apartments Chronicle readers have come up with. And some of them still have vacancies!

* * *

Here’s a condensed version:

• Serrano Apartments, near West Oaks Mall:
  

  dead animals in the pools, falling/leaning down gates, open apartments with wet ceilings hanging down, grass knee high, and residents have complained of non-working ac, appliances, and no hot water. There are homeless living underneath the stairs, and if you walk in the complex, there are rats out in the open.

• Westhill Plaza Apts, 3001 Hillcroft, between Westheimer and Richmond:
  

  sewage and feces floating around the parking lot, walkways/sidewalks, and around shrubbery that leads to and up to numerous tenants units. There is a constant smell and I see children playing in and around the water. There is no working or functioning entrance or exit gates. They also tow cars at random simply based on anyones request without a proper procedure in place.

• Huntwick Apartments, near the intersection of FM 1960 and Wunderlich Rd.:
  

  Balconies have collapsed, lots of overgrown vegetation, the paint is peeling, there is obviously a total lack of maintenance. A large tree split in half on their property adjacent to Coral Gables Dr., and after the dead half lay on the ground (in plain view) for over 6 months, a crew finally cut it into smaller pieces, which then lay in the same spot for another 6 months.

• Complexes near the intersection of West Bellfort and Fondren.
• Complex at the intersection of Fondren and West Airport:
  

  one building burned and it stood like that for over a year.

• S. Post Oak between W. Bellfort and Willowbend, S. Post Oak at Benning Dr.:

“refurbished”. They splashed this god awful orange paint all on the part facing the street.

• Anything on S. Willow Dr. or Gasmer.
• The Princeton Club Apartments on Memorial near Dairy Ashford:
  

  vacant apartments that are still full of rotting garbage (and maggots and roaches)months after they are vacated. There are squatters living there too since about half the apartments are vacant. I lived there for almost a year, and was robbed 4 times not counting the bike that was stolen after I left it outside my front door for a few moments to go inside for a drink.

• Apartments in the Greenspoint area and north of 610, between I-45 & 59.
• Dunlavy at W. Alabama, across from the Fiesta:
  

  There are always cars in the lot, and occasionally lights on in some of the rooms - it’s unclear if it’s completely vacant, and if so, it’s not secured at all.

  looks abaondoned because windows are broken out, but there are alway cars parked there so I have always wondered. It’s in bad shape.

• Every apartment complex on either side of Briar Forest between the Beltway and Kirkwood:
  

  run down, falling apart, gang graffiti, and the source of 90% of the heavy crime in the area.

• a complex by the North Freeway that just got painted a horrid bright green color (actually, several bright green colors, looks like they meant to match but they don’t).

• Another place that may have got torn down during I 10 construction, but from the freeway looked horrible. I think they were called Skylane or something like that - advertised weekly rental prices on their signs.

• The Lake Apartments, 5650 TimberCreek Place Drive 77084:
  

  They have an infestation of bats and insects and the landlord caulked them inside of the buildings and there’s no escape except for coming into the apartments themselves. There’s dead ducks all over the property and the cats are attempting to eat them, and nats/insects from some sort that are accumulating from the lake where there’s dead fish.

• Apartments on the corner of Richey & Jackson streets in Pasadena [Yes, this is one of the complexes that burned, a day after the comment was posted.]
• Apartments north or south of Briar Forest between Beltway 8 and Kirkwood.
• The Haverstock Hills Apartments on Aldine Bender at Lee Road in Northeast Houston:
  

  The absolute worst apartments . . . People are dying there.

• The Kiam Apartments, 5323 Kiam St. in Cottage Grove:
  

  It is truly one of the worst apartments I have ever seen - termite, roach and rat infested, sorely needing maintenance, etc.

• Apartments at 7461 Gulf Fwy. at 3300 Auburn.

• H-Town Lifestyle: Algae-Filled Pool Included [Slampo’s Place]
• Houston apartments: Help us find the blight [Houston Politics]
• Massive Pasadena apartment fire destroys 108 units [Houston Chronicle]
• Blaze damages second apartment complex in 24 hours [Houston Chronicle]
• Arson suspected in southeast Houston apartment fire [KHOU]
• More Repair Work for Vo [Swamplot]
• Hubert Vo’s East End Complex: For Sale! [Swamplot]

Photo of Compton Courts Apartments, 419 Richey St., Pasadena: Pasadena Citizen