Houston Housing Authority accused of knowing about toxic contamination of housing project

Published: Aug 28, 2024 Duration: 00:03:06 Category: News & Politics

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Florida, but it's not clear where it was headed. Well, only on Fox tonight. Strong evidence emerging that the Houston Housing Authority suppressed knowledge of toxic contamination when it asked the state to help financially back a low income housing project. That's right. Fox 26 political reporter Greg Groogan has been all over it. He's here now in the studio with yet another breaking developmen. Greg. Yeah. Rashi and Caroline lying by omission, is still lying when the state of Texas asked if there was a safety risk on or near the property to be developed. The housing authority could have come clean about the toxic contamination they knew was there. Instead, they said nothing. A decision which may well prove very costly. That place is right in the middle of like contamination. Central. Fox 26 was the first to report fresh revelations regarding the Houston Housing Authority's controversial 800 Middle Street low income development. In documents we obtained from 2019, both HHR and its development partner, NRP admit residual contamination remained on the property purchased for the $130 million project, and the two entities further conceded that land directly adjacent to the multifamily complex was so toxic it was unfit for any type of development. Don't get any stinkier than this. Turns out that two years later, in 2021, when the Housing Authority applied for millions of dollars in state backed bonds from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Development, neither HHR nor its development partner disclosed any of the concerns. Asked if the development was within 300ft of dump sites, they failed to disclose, asked if the project was in proximity to an environmental factor that may adversely affect health and safety. HHR and its partner failed to disclose. Fox 26 legal analyst Chris Tritico says the housing authority appears to have violated both state and federal law. I reviewed all the documents in this case, and it shows that the parties knew that this land was contaminated when they filled out the documents and left that information out, they made material misrepresentations to the state government and to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those material misrepresentations are a crime. LULAC Greater Houston president said he is disgusted by what he calls a boondoggle. This is our taxpayers dollars financing these developers while they profit. And the poor people always suffer. We've heard back from the Housing Authority, which says it's providing the state and the city with additional environmental reports to, in its words, confirm the sites acceptability for residential use. Our question why didn't you provide that scientific proof before running through tens of millions of tax dollars

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