HOUSTON – Vacant and abandoned properties are a problem in several neighborhoods across the Houston area.
The City of Houston’s Department of Neighborhoods lists 1,061 residential properties as “dangerous buildings.”
“Most of the time when people think of a dangerous building, you’re thinking of something that’s about to fall down. Structure is a big part of that, but there are other components of that -- open and vacant. If a building stays open and vacant and not secured, it’s considered a dangerous building,” said Reggie Harris, Asst. Director of the Department of Neighborhoods. “If it’s listing or leaning to a certain point, it’s a dangerous structure.”
“The problem is there’s too many of them.”
The president of the Third Ward Super neighborhood, Kenneth Rodgers walks along a row of houses on Alabama that have long been in a state of disrepair. Boards covering some of the windows have been broken or fallen, and there’s trash, discarded food cans, and old clothes in between the houses, along with signs of squatters camping on one front porch.
“It’s almost like a virus that happens because one house was neglected, and then next thing you know, all the houses around it start to look the same way,” said Rodgers. “It violates the safety of the neighborhood.”
According to the latest city data, Rodgers said his other concern is that these dilapidated properties are being bought by developers who construct expensive condos and homes in an area where the median household income is $31, 362. Rodgers worries this will eventually make the area unaffordable for current residents.
“Let’s provide homes right now for our underserved community,” said Rodgers. “We need somebody who has the ear of city hall.”
We heard similar concerns from the president of the Acres Homes Super Neighborhood.
“Safety is a major concern in this community, but mostly because of the abandoned structures,” said Latisha Grant.
To Grant’s point, we saw a pair of homes off S. Victory in severe states of disrepair. One home was filled with trash, including old clothes, discarded automotive oil filters and pooling stagnant water.
“My biggest concern is that as a community, we will lose hope,” said Grant.
According to city records, Department of Neighborhood inspectors conducted 14,248 inspections related to dangerous buildings over four years. Harris says in 79 percent of dangerous building cases, owners eventually comply with directives to clean up a property and secure the outside. However, this can be a lengthy process.
“Unfortunately, a lot of times a lot of our compliance is gained at the end of the process and not at the beginning of the process,” said Harris. “One property could involve 15-20 inspections.”
One example we saw is a house on Wicklowe in northeast Houston.
Weeds were waist-high in the front yard, there were downed cables in the driveway, and the house was open to the elements. The were also holes in the roof and piles of trash inside the home.
“Anything to make the neighborhood look better will help, even if it’s just trimming the yard or picking up trash, it’s this big help,” said Alex Gonzalez, who lives across the derelict property.
Gonzalez said his family moved into their home three years ago, and the home across the street has always been in a state of disrepair. When KPRC 2 Investigates checked city records, we found that the property was on the Department of Neighborhoods’ radar as far back as 2020, with numerous follow-up inspections. City officials said the property is now being seized and prepped for demolition.
Harris said one of the biggest hurdles is tracking down property owners. He said there are several cases where inspectors find property records are not up-to-date or the owner is dead. If an owner does not comply with orders to clean up a property, then the city can take the matter to an administrative hearing and secure orders to have the property vacated, prohibit entry, secured or even demolished.
“There’s multiple times that we have brought cases all the way to hearings and we found out there’s a new owner of the property,” said Harris. “When there’s a new owner of the property, of course, then we have to go back and start that property all over again.”
Harris said there have been cases where the city has hired a contractor to demolish a property, only to show up and discover the owner sold the property to a developer who had already torn it down.
Riverside General Hospital was once a vital part of Houston’s Greater Third Ward community. The old hospital and its newer counterpart were eventually shuttered, but Harris County made new plans for the property. Officials with Commissioner Rodney Ellis’ office told KPRC 2 construction on the project will begin in a few months. However, as we were covering the problem of vacant properties in this area, we noticed Riverside was left wide open and there were clear signs people were getting inside.
Watch the video to see what happened after we started asking why a county asset wasn’t better secured. You can also read more about the history of Riverside here.
A Daunting Task
DON inspectors do face a daunting workload.
In addition to dangerous buildings, inspectors are also responsible for watching out for high weeds, junked cars, stagnant water, and several other neighborhood nuisances. Harris said the department currently has 36 inspectors “on the street” and five supervisors. KPRC 2 received a database of all inspections conducted from January 2020 through December 2023. The total provided by the department was 271,632. This number includes everything that falls under DON’s purview.
This total also means each inspector conducts an average of 1,886.33 inspections a year. Based on data provided to KPRC 2, multiple inspections can take place at one property and some inspections take only a couple of minutes to verify a violation exists. DON’s database shows approximately 84 percent of inspectors’ work involves initial inspections and check-backs. This volume is why Harris is asking residents to report problems in their neighborhood through 311.
This is the city’s Neighborhood Toolbox
“We can’t be everywhere,” said Harris.
As far as the list of dangerous buildings is concerned, DON officials state 567 cases are in pre-hearing, meaning the city is trying to get owners to comply, 77 are scheduled for an administrative hearing, 75 have orders for abatement and 296 have expired orders for abatement which means the city can move forward with bringing the property into compliance. The remaining cases are in the early stages of this process.
‘We’re not talking about putting plywood over a hole’
The city’s Public Works department has jurisdiction over vacant commercial properties.
We learned Public Works does not have as much authority as DON when it comes to bringing a derelict property into compliance.
KPRC 2 heard from residents in the Woodside neighborhood off the south-loop-west and Stella Link regarding a vacant strip center. The center is on Woodvalley and is at one of four entrances to the 450-home neighborhood.
“How long have you seen the property like this?” asked KPRC 2 Investigator Robert Arnold.
“Going on about two years,” said a resident who asked not to be identified.
“What have you dealt with?” asked Arnold.
The neighborhood as a whole has dealt with homeless vagrants living at the property, coming and going as they please,” the resident said.
This resident and another resident provided pictures of homeless people on the property and across the street from the property. Both residents also provided KPRC 2 with records of multiple complaints about the property filed through the city’s 311 system.
A portion of a fence placed across the front of the building was torn away, windows and doors were broken and there was a large hole in the roof.
“You want to feel safe, right? And so when a homeless person is panhandling in your front yard to your young children and wife, you no longer have that sense of security. And so it dramatically impacts the way you feel about where you live,” the resident said.”
“I mean everybody that we’ve contacted, I’m telling you, two years of people in this neighborhood harassing people at the city, anybody that would even listen and acknowledge it... nothing,” the resident said.
Residents of the neighborhood told KPRC 2 police have come out on multiple occasions to make sure homeless people do not stay on the property, but acknowledge officers can’t be there around the clock.
The building housed J&J’s seafood, which suffered a major fire two years ago. The fire also forced other businesses to move out of the building. KPRC 2 was able to speak with the property owner’s agent, John Barr.
“How do you keep the homeless people out?” Barr said.
“What about boarding up the front of the building so (people) can’t into the actual building?” asked Arnold.
“They break into the back doors, there’s not a door that hasn’t been broken in or kicked in. They cut holes in the walls, They get into one place and they cut holes in the sheetrock, and here’s what gets me here, I have criminals making me into a criminal,” said Barr.
Barr also blames the delay in repairing and remodeling the property on a three-month delay in getting a final report from the Houston Fire Department, new floodplain ordinances impacting the cost of repairs, and a nine-month back-and-forth with the city’s permitting department.
“We’re not talking about putting plywood over a hole, we’re talking about bringing the building up to current code,” Barr said, noting the original property was first built in 1960 and remodeled in 2013.
Officials with Public Works said they do not have the authority to board up commercial private properties but do require property owners to keep a fence around the perimeter. We did see a fence placed around the strip center, but it was either blown down in heavy winds or torn down on multiple occasions.
Public Works can cite an owner for not having a fence around a vacant property but has not cited the owner of this property.
Public Works officials said they will continue monitoring the property to make sure the fence is kept in place. As for the permitting process, Public Works officials said plans were first submitted in June of 2023, rejected the following month, resubmitted in December, rejected the same month, then resubmitted in February 2024 and approved in March. Barr said now that he has the needed permits he is working on securing financing for the project.
We heard similar complaints about other vacant commercial properties in different parts of the city.
“It’s been an uphill battle to try to keep this area clean and secure,” said Rich Johnson, discussing an area around Elgin and Ennis in the 3rd Ward.
Johnson created Cinque Projects, which utilizes up-and-coming artists to paint murals on vacant commercial buildings to help beautify the area. He points out how vagrants were gaining access to these buildings and starting fires.
“We’d like for the city to get involved, for sure,” said Johnson.
In Kashmere Gardens, the president of the super neighborhood, Keith Downey, showed a vacant multi-family building that’s been gutted by fire and is considered a danger to the community. Downey said the property on Crane near Brewster has been vacant for seven years.
“How do we expect residents to feel good about themselves when they wake up and they have to pass this on their way to work? A child has to pass that way on their way home and going to school in the morning,” said Downey.
Downey said vacant buildings like this one stifle revitalization efforts.
Public Works officials said the owner of this property has been cited 20 times as a dangerous building, yet the problem persists.
Unlike DON, Public Works officials said they do not have a mechanism that would allow them onto privately owned commercial property to force compliance.
Mayor John Whitmire’s Response to KPRC 2
“I heard a lot about abandoned buildings and houses while I was running for mayor. As mayor, I am in the process of reviewing all departments and programs. The Department of Neighborhoods and its services are a priority. As a former longtime member of the Texas Senate, I worked directly with the City. As mayor, I know the challenges and cumbersome process of quickly resolving issues regarding abandoned properties. They are public safety hazards, but we must work with heirs and property owners to fix them. It is not a fast process, but I am working to make our department as efficient and responsive as possible.”