On Friday, Houston kicks off what it's calling 'Demolition Days,' where crews will begin tearing down old, run-down buildings using $30 million in stormwater funds.
Abandoned and dilapidated properties across Houston will begin to be demolished using controversial flood dollars. The money fell under scrutiny earlier this year as disagreement mounted over whether it's legal to use flood dollars to demolish buildings.
The first building to be torn down with the new fund was a boarded-up single-family home in Kashmere Gardens. Before the home fell down, it was the home of Lenell Lopez's family for generations. As loved ones aged and passed, Lopez said the home fell into disrepair, and taxes piled up. She said there was evidence of people living in there without permission, and the land often needed TLC that the family couldn't keep up with.
"It's causing health hazards and all that, and the homeless to get them out of there, and it's sad, but I know that a lot of abandoned properties they do need fixing up," Lopez said. The city is using money from a $30 million fund to demolish the home. That fund was the center of debate earlier this year because it was pulled from the city's drainage fund.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire argues old properties like the Kashmere Gardens home fall down, attract illegal dumping, and ultimately clog up neighborhood drains. It's that link the mayor used to argue the use of the money was legal. Critics argued the mayor's logic was an overstep, even citing a recent settlement made by the city over the previous misuse of flood money.
The mayor said Friday that they've buttoned up the city's laws to ensure what they are doing is sound.
"We did amend the ordinance to say the funding has to go to where the location is impacting drainage. I think the fact that it is in the flood plain is one of the leading indicators of why we came here," Whitmire said. There are thousands of structures across the city that need to be demolished, according to the mayor, but only a fraction will be torn down using the new fund.
Whitmire said public works evaluates sites to determine which would be tackled first. Whitmire said demolitions will happen across the city, though a list of potential properties given to ABC13 earlier this year shows buildings up for demo are predominantly in Houston's east side. Houston City Council approves using $30 million in flood money to demolish buildings
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