WIXLIB

PUBLIC COMMENTSMs. Jenny Mason addressed the Board with concerns about the East End Project. Ms. Mason stated she wants to address two(2) proposed projects that are in her neighborhood. She lives right between these projects and one is proposed by The NRPGroup along Middle Street and the other is proposed by Ojala Partners on Jenson Street. These projects will create tremendoustraffic problems, especially the project next to Middle Street. We are talking about 800 units in that area and we have smallneighborhood streets there. One side is blocked by Buffalo Bayou and it just doesn’t make sense to have this density in thatarea. We had a townhome meeting recently and Sylvia Trevino, their constable for Precinct 6, sent representatives and theconstables said they were not made aware of these projects; and the number of affordable housing apartments projected forthe neighborhood far exceeded what they can handle to keep them all safe. Also, HUD guidelines prohibit them from buildingon contaminated sites, but also adjacent to contaminated sites. The NRP Group project along Middle Street is adjacent to aregistered State Superfund and the old City of Houston’s incinerator site where there was waste burned for years. The siterequested by Ojala Partners on Jenson Street is going to be adjacent to the new “powering freeway megastructure” that willhave several bridges taller than high-rise buildings and for years there will be construction noise, debris, diesel exhaust, and thenoise and exhaust will continue after construction. Ms. Mason indicated on the homepage of the HHA website, it says In itseffort to provide children with safe, fun places to play, HHA has begun a multi-year campaign to replace playgrounds that needupgrading. She submits that it is even more important to provide children with a safe place to live. By approving these projects,HHA will be placing families who do not have the economic ability to pay for housing in a neighborhood of their choice, like shedid when her children were young in a very unsafe environment. Instead of apologizing for this damaging mistake in the future,please choose to not make that mistake now, as it will end up being the subject of numerous investigations, exposés, andlawsuits in the future. Disadvantage families need your guidance, expertise, and compassion. Please give these children andtheir families a chance to live in a new, clean and safe environment. The sites of Ojala Partners and The NRP Group projects donot rise to that standard. Surely, this is not the best decision Houston can offer low-income families and disabled peoplebecause they deserve our best efforts.Vice Chair Wilson thanked Ms. Mason for her comments.Ms. Charlotte Riggins, a former Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program participant, addressed the Board with concernsabout the termination of her housing voucher. Ms. Riggins stated that she was terminated from the HCV Program for areason out of her control. She indicated a letter regarding her unreported income from HHA was mistakenly placed in herneighbor’s mailbox. She explained that HHA agreed to place her on a payment agreement, but her caseworker did notwant to put her on a payment agreement after missing the appointment. Ms. Riggins said she would like to address theseissues with the Board so that you would take into consideration her termination for the voucher program. She has beenon the voucher program for 15 years and has never made a mistake or missed an appointment. She feels that she wasmistreated because when she finally received her mail from her neighbor on August 6 th, it indicated that her appointmentwas on August 2nd.Ms. Riggins continued stating, that she immediately went to her caseworker and her caseworker told her to appeal it, notknowing that her caseworker already filed a termination of her voucher. So, when she appealed for her housing, shedidn’t realize it was about the termination from the program, she thought it was for the decision not to move forwardwith the payment agreement for her unreported income. Ms. Riggins said she reached out to Secretary Gunsolley, Ms.Robin Walls, and Ms. Nakia Jones. Ms. Jones told her to fax all the documentation and she did on August 28 th. Shecontacted Ms. Walls’ office on October 22nd and her secretary contacted her back and asked her to fax over thedocumentation as well. She also has documents for the Board to review, including the letter that was placed in herneighbor’s mailbox by mistake. Ms. Riggins concluded this was out of her control and it was a mistake, so she would likethe Board to take this into consideration and give her back her housing voucher.Ms. Wilson thanked Ms. Riggins for her remarks.Vice Chair Wilson acknowledged that Chair Snowden arrived at 3:12 p.m. and will assume his role as Chair of the meeting.Ms. Elena Penso, of East End, addressed the Board with concerns about the East End Project. Ms. Penso said she is a resident ofSecond Ward and she is here again to advocate on the behalf of her area not have the Ojala Partners project. One of the thingsthat have been concerning to her is mothers, like herself, having potential personal safety issues. They already have plenty ofhomes in the area that have a lot of incidents, but once HHA builds those projects, you allocate money for safety and security.Ms. Penso said her second concern is the kids in those projects will be assigned to some of the worse schools in HISD. Two ofthe schools are apart of the State taking over them so her concern is how is HHA thinking about the future of those families6

when HHA hasn’t even look at the serious concerns involved with living in that area. The third issue that she has is the trafficbecause Second Ward does have issues with the small streets and no sidewalks. They still have streets in peril and they havebeen advocating for the last 10 years for better streets. And just having that high density in the area is going to put a toll on it.They have mothers walking on the streets because they aren’t able to use the sidewalks. With that being said, they are going tohave this humongous project which is going to be hard on her neighborhood because of traffic and safety for the families. Ms.Penso said she is asking the Board to reconsider the where and how this project is built, especially on this side. The SecondWard is already home of seven (7) affordable housing or low-income projects in less than two miles. If you pull out the City ofHouston’s map, you don’t see so many buildings in one particular area that’s less than a two-mile radius and she thinks it’swrong in this case. Ms. Penso said that she thinks this creates a ghetto kind of environment in which the area doesn’t benefitthe residents at all. So, please consider this project very carefully.Chair Snowden thanked Ms. Penso for her remarks.Mr. Albert Wittliff addressed the Board with concerns about the East End Project. Mr. Wittliff stated that he represents the EastBayou District Civic Club and they represent the area immediately adjacent to the proposed project. They cover the area fromJenson Street to Bringhurst Street from Clinton Street to I-10. He has been in the community for several years working on allmatters of issues. He said the Board has already heard a lot of what he wanted to say, so he is only going to repeat two issues.There is a density issue when you have these many low-income housing apartments on top of each other. Kennedy Place is1,500 feet from the proposed project and Kelly Village is just a few blocks away. The Ojala Partners project is meant to replaceClayton Homes which has been brought out and being destroyed. A big part has already been flooded and destroyed. One ofthe concerns of Clayton Homes was that it is located underneath the overpasses and it was not a good place to have peopleliving. The new proposed project will be underneath these giant sets of overpasses and so, nothing is being improved foranyone’s quality of life when it comes to that. Mr. Wittliff said the schools have been mentioned and Wheatley High School hasfailed for the last seven years and HHA is talking about adding a lot more people when the high school is already struggling.Bruce Elementary School has gotten a relevantly new campus, but they are not getting much support that they need.Mr. Wittliff continued, stating infrastructure in general in the area is not up to the task for this project. There are drainageissues already and if you develop the concrete with this much space, the flooding that started is going to get much worse.There are projects in place now that are trying to reduce flooding and it’s going to involve moving more water down the bayou.He said during Hurricane Harvey, he had never seen water as high as it was and he has lived in this neighborhood for 14 years.The more construction that is done and the infrastructure is not in place, we are going to have a flooding problem in an areathat we didn’t have a flooding problem before. Mr. Wittliff indicated that law enforcement has already been mentioned and heis a Special Agent for Homeland Security and he works vigorously with law enforcement in the area and they have made it veryclear to him that they were unaware of these proposed project and do not think they can adsorb the enforcement because theyare struggling now. So, if we add this many more people in the area, it’s just a question of more and more people. There arehundreds of units between these two projects and that is a lot for the already infrastructure.Lastly, Mr. Wittliff said he has concerns about the tax base and what kind of tax break is being given. He said if you don’t havethe tax income coming from this many projects, there is no way the community can afford to improve the infrastructure acrossthe board, whether that be the schools, the law enforcement, the drainage, the power, everything. These projects are illconceived and are not being presented well. As he said, he has been living there for 14 years and this is the first time he hasever heard anything about them, so he has concerns about transparency as well. Mr. Wittliff said he appreciates the Boardtaking this time to hear his concerns.Chair Snowden thanked Mr. Wittliff for his remarks.Mr. Alan J. Atkinson addressed the Board with concerns about the East End Project. Mr. Atkinson stated he sincerelyappreciates the patience and efforts the Board makes in supporting the homeless and low-income families in this community.He does not necessarily think critical of the Board members because they rely on the information that’s given to them. What hehas learned over the past month is that your representatives literally mislead the public and he thinks that they are alsomisleading the Board by not giving all of the information that is relevant to your decisions. The documents that he passed outrelate to the 43.5 acres that HHA plans to buy on the south and north sides of Buffalo Bayou, HUD is not going to approve eitherof these properties for low-income housing. The south property is surrounded by heavily contaminated clay and your staff hasstated that the HHA plans to purch

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