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Postscript: Allen Parkway Village today |
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The story of Allen Parkway Village has been used to illustrate
the struggle between the residents of a public housing development
and a housing authority over the future of public housing.
In June, 1996 the Houston Housing Authority evicted the remaining
residents of Allen Parkway Village with the assistance of 250
local and federal law enforcement personnel.
Seven hundred of the 1,000 units of public housing at Allen Parkway
Village have since been demolished.
The future of Allen Parkway Village and the surrounding Freedmen's
Town neighborhood and National Historic District are uncertain.
The former residents of Allen Parkway Village continue to fight
on. |
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The Houston Housing Authority has demolished 700 of the 1,000
housing units at Allen Parkway Village. (Photo: TxLIHIS) |
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Former site of Allen Parkway Village. Allen Parkway Village public
housing residents believe the housing authority demolished their
homes to sell the property to downtown developers. (Photo: TxLIHIS) |
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The 300 remaining public housing apartments at Allen Parkway Village
were fenced off after the residents were evicted. (Photo: TxLIHIS) |
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Lenwood Johnson,
public housing resident,
Allen Parkway Village, Houston
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CLICK PICTURE FOR MOVIE
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Learn how to see VIVO movies
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In one day's time they (Houston Housing Authority) erected this
fence around the 1,000 unit facility and 100 US Marshals and 150
armed police officers were escorting old ladies in wheelchairs
and on breathing machines and women with little kids and children
off the property. They also brought in moving vans and people
had to move their entire homes within two and a half hours.
That was in June of 1996. Here it is in January of 1998 and the
place is still vacant after they demolished 70% of the property
and left 30% to be refurbished and nothing has happened to this
date.
So as a result of getting us out, in September of that year(1996)
(former HUD Secretary Henry) Cisneros went on and approved for
them to demolish 700 of the units and keep 300 to be rehabbed.
But our argument is if you can rehab 300 units you could have
rehabbed the whole thing. The other thing is Cisneros committed
that the land was not to be used for commercial development and
only could be kept for public housing. Of course he's not honest
with that neither because then he brings in a home ownership problem
by saying that you could sell homes on the vacant land which is
no longer public housing. [Residents believe the houses will be
sold at prices far above what public housing residents can afford]..
The other thing is that since 1983 we have always told the people
of Freedmen's Town, churches, organizations, that if they didn't
help protect us they had no protection for themselves. Because
it was the federal red tape at Allen Parkway Village and the organization
at Allen Parkway Village which had stopped some of the biggest
powers in their country for nearly twenty years. We are talking
about big financial institutions out of New York and the Northeast,
the federal government, HUD itself ... we fought (former HUD Secretary)
Sam Pierce, (former HUD Secretary) Jack Kemp was not that much
of a problem, but Cisneros certainly was a problem, the major
corporations, the Houston Chamber of Commerce, the city government.
We were a real threat to them. We are still a threat to them cause
there are still 300 units (of public housing) sitting over there
and they are trying to figure out how to get rid of that last
300. We expect them to try to make it elderly housing, a non-threatening
population, so you don't have any young minority children wandering
through the neighborhood. (Elderly housing would be) a very sedentary
population which they'll wall off and lock in and eventually wipe
this out and complete their master plan (redevelopment of Freedmen?s
town into commercial downtown real estate).
But, our group is still gonna work to keep what we have.
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