Days after Yvette Flores moved in with her boyfriend at a senior living facility on Houston’s north side in May, a violent storm tore through the city and sent water rushing into their apartment through broken windows and holes in the ceiling and baseboards.  

For weeks after the May 16 derecho, Flores and Thomas Wilkins say they asked Independence Hall staff for repairs. Wilkins, who is confined to an electric wheelchair, grew especially desperate. Without repairs to the windows next to his bed, he couldn’t keep water from soaking into his sheets and the floor below. 

 “We just kept saying, ‘we need y’all to fix this, because we can’t be doing it ourselves,'” Wilkins said. “But it just never happened.” 

On July 8 – 53 days after the derecho – Hurricane Beryl struck Houston.  Water poured into Flores and Wilkins’ apartment again, through the same broken windows, the same holes in the ceiling, the same baseboards.      

Flores and Wilkins are among thousands of Houstonians living in publicly-funded apartments for low-income and disabled seniors who were left vulnerable when Beryl struck – despite vows from city officials to tighten accountability measures for these facilities after the derecho.  

At least 32 independent living facilities across Houston receive funding through contracts with the city’s Housing and Community Development Department.   

It is unclear how many facilities lost power or were damaged during Beryl.

Independent living facilities are not certified or licensed by the state and face little oversight. 

Asked how Houston officials monitor conditions at facilities receiving city funding, Housing and Community Development Director Mike Nichols said he did not have an answer. 

“And I don’t know if I’ll have a better answer,” Nichols said, “because I think the answer may be… we have to find out how we can get money to refurbish this facility without raising the rents.”

Those facilities and their owners became a target for Houston Mayor John Whitmire after the derecho, as reports of multi-day power outages, medical emergencies and unaddressed structural damage emerged during the aftermath.  

“Part of our going forward will be to identify them, hold them accountable, and prevent that,” Whitmire told reporters during a May 21 news conference. “They shouldn’t be doing business with any city, county or state or federal program when they’re so negligent to leave people.”   

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office declined comment Monday. 

A representative of Creative Property Management, Independence Hall’s owner, also declined the Landing’s requests for comment.     

“This is a larger systemic problem in the city of Houston about the unsanitary and non-decent conditions in which people are forced to live, because the landlords are not being held accountable,” said Julia Orduña, the Southeast Texas regional director for the nonprofit Texas Housers.

“Yes, the elderly should come first, but we should also care about all of our tenants in Houston,” she said. “We cannot allow these conditions to be our standard.”  

Damage from the derecho remained unaddressed at other Houston senior living facilities when Beryl hit two months later. 

At Heights House, another city-funded senior living facility located in the 1900 block of Heights Boulevard, Stacey Kaposta has been waiting more than a month for help cleaning and repairing damage caused by leaks during Beryl. 

The storm killed power at the 150-unit complex for three days as water flooded hallways and apartments. For Kaposta and her neighbors, the ordeal was all too familiar.    

“Before Beryl had hit, I was still trying to get help with fixing the damage from (the derecho),” she said. “Then with Beryl, all the water just came in the same holes, the same cracks.”      

The nonprofit Housing Corporation of Greater Houston, which owns Heights House, sent a notice to residents this week.

“(Beryl) has caused an unforeseen issue of water leaks in the unit, at this time. We are still assessing the issues and working with many companies to develop a plan of action to resolve the water leaks we are experiencing throughout the building,” Orain L. Penson Jr., Corporate Facilities Director for the Housing Corporation, wrote in the ‘Plan of Action Notice.’ 

Penson did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. 

After the derecho in May, power was lost for days at both Heights House and Heights Tower, a nearby 230-unit complex also owned and managed by the Housing Corporation. Whitmire denounced the Tower by name in the days after the derecho, calling the conditions there “outrageous.” 

Back at Independence Hall, the wait for help became intolerable for Flores and Wilkins last month. As a last-ditch effort, Flores sent a letter to the management company, detailing the damage to their apartment and listing off work orders she said have been ignored for weeks. “All Mr. Wilkins wants to know (is) if the repairs will ever be completed,” she wrote. “Please be aware there is no follow-up here. No communication at all.” 

She doubts the letter will accomplish anything.

“At this point,” she said, “I’d probably just be safer back living on the street again.”  

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