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Mirasol Homes' American dream still nightmare
In one of San Antonio's most troubled public housing developments, Raquel Martinez is watching her dream slowly fade away. For years, homeowners and tenants have endured life in houses that some say were built to last less than a decade. And there's a growing sense in the neighborhood that Mirasol is a problem that never will be solved. At the same time, residents' fervor for the fight is waning. What's clear is that the board, led by Ramiro Cavazos, is saying all the right things, at least for those who matter to the commissioners — Mirasol residents. His unabashed opinions of the workmanship by KB Home, the project's builder, resonate with them. "The problems probably are worse than even what's been described about the quality of the homes that were constructed," Cavazos said. "I was shocked at how poorly constructed the homes were."
Mirasol Homes' American dream still nightmare
04/16/2008
Josh Baugh
Express-News
In one of San Antonio's most troubled public housing developments, Raquel Martinez is watching her dream slowly fade away.
She used to imagine sprucing up her first house, a three-bedroom, two-bath cottage in the San Antonio Housing Authority's Mirasol Homes development.
Martinez planned to add wooden thresholds and French doors in a home she could be proud of, something she was happy to call her own.
But those dreams vanished when weeds sprouted from her living room carpet.
For years, homeowners and tenants have endured life in houses that some say were built to last less than a decade. And there's a growing sense in the neighborhood that Mirasol is a problem that never will be solved. At the same time, residents' fervor for the fight is waning.
"It's just one thing after another," Martinez said. "You start seeing things you could not repair when you see grass growing inside."
By almost all accounts, the 247-home Mirasol development is a failure. It's too soon to tell whether either of the offered solutions — buying back the homes and repairing them — will rectify the beleaguered development. Regardless, the effort comes at a steep price.
SAHA has budgeted about $4 million for repairs and expects to spend $3.5 million buying back homes in the development. But SAHA officials say they'll recoup some of that money as they sell the homes again.
The West Side subdivision, five distinct neighborhoods of homes built with federal funds, has such large-scale problems that once workers are finished, not a single house will be left untouched. Its difficulties have bedeviled two SAHA chief executive officers, four boards of commissioners and two San Antonio mayors.
All of them have heard the stories — yet the problems persist. Now that new commissioners have taken the baton, it's unclear whether this reform-minded group can navigate the bureaucracy that spans federal, state and local governments to find success where others have failed.
Soon after Martinez and others began moving into the subdivision in 2001, things started falling apart. They reported cabinets shaking loose, wiggly bathroom fixtures and broken doors. Later, children and adults fell ill with a variety of ailments, including respiratory sickness they say is linked to mold in the air-conditioning system.
What's clear is that the board, led by Ramiro Cavazos, is saying all the right things, at least for those who matter to the commissioners — Mirasol residents. His unabashed opinions of the workmanship by KB Home, the project's builder, resonate with them.
"The problems probably are worse than even what's been described about the quality of the homes that were constructed," Cavazos said. "I was shocked at how poorly constructed the homes were."
But he isn't the first shot of hope for Mirasol. Last spring, residents saw initial success in the creation of the Mirasol Task Force, a board charged with resolving seven years of plight in a few months' time.
"In the beginning, I thought they would listen to us," Martinez said. "I thought they were going to go in the right direction."
Nearly a year later, residents have mostly written off the group that was created to help them. The task force is hard-pressed to claim any tangible success, though its members point to a SAHA buyback program that has allowed homeowners to sell their houses back and keep their first-time homeowner status.
Task force meetings, once typically packed with residents, no longer are attended by much of anyone other than staff. They often disintegrate into pointless arguments about things barely tangential to Mirasol, like the status of a single task force member.
"I think there's been a lot of in-fighting that's slowed their progress," said Cavazos, who also holds a seat on the task force. "Sometimes, I'm sitting there wondering why are we even arguing who's here and who isn't here. Let's talk about what we need to do to solve the problem."
But the task force's leader says he thinks the group has found success, if only recently. Gordon Hartman, a local philanthropist and former homebuilder , says that despite continual complaints, the task force will hand over a strong, finished product.
But the task force can't even agree on whether any repairs actually have been finished. Bart Swider, a former Pulte Homes executive who's overseeing the day-to-day operations at Mirasol, says he's completing work on about 17 houses a week. Every house is being retrofitted with a new air-conditioning system and new doors and windows.
But Vice Chairman Ralph Velasquez says a home isn't complete until its owner signs off on the repairs, something that's yet to happen.
Residents say the work is shoddy at best — more patches on houses that were shoddily built to begin with.
Homeowner Lupe Lopez, a carpenter by trade, says he watched substandard work take place when the homes were first built. Now, he says, the repairs are another quick fix.
"It's nothing but a Band-Aid," he said. "As a carpenter, I think they should start all over."
Martinez's home is one of the first that's supposed to be complete. After workers had finished, she pointed out door locks missing skid plates, concrete crumbling off the foundation and mismatched paint over patched drywall.
She looks at dried paint spilled on her porch and wonders why workers never bothered to clean it up.
"It was my dream house," she said.
It's a common sentiment at Mirasol, where people with low incomes wanted a better life.
But of the 76 Mirasol families that SAHA contacted about the buyback program, only four have said they will stay. Twenty families either have sold their homes back or are in the process of doing so, and 36 more are waiting until repairs are completed to decide whether they'll sell or stay.
Even as the task force's work crews are scheduled to finish work on all the homes by August, the SAHA board still is grappling with how best to finally resolve Mirasol's troubles.
"Since we're coming in late, we've actually had a few commissioners that have said, 'OK, what does it cost if we just tear down the whole damn thing? And is that a better use of public dollars?'" Cavazos said.
The board is dealing with more than just the physical problems at Mirasol. Also weighing heavily is strong, negative public perception — from both inside and outside the neighborhood.
"Let me be very blunt: Mirasol will always be with us," Cavazos said.
The idea of razing the development — popular among residents — probably never will come to fruition. At a recent housing summit in Washington, the commissioners learned SAHA likely would be on the hook to repay the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for any Mirasol house it demolishes.
HUD gave SAHA a $48.3 million HOPE VI grant, more than $20 million of which was used to build 247 single-family homes in Mirasol. One has since burned down.
Commissioner Richard Gambitta said he'll soon propose a creative idea about dealing with Mirasol.
Though he wouldn't divulge any details, Gambitta said his idea falls somewhere between razing the development and sticking with Hartman's plan for resolution.
"I have the audacity of hope that the issues can be rectified." he said. "And I'm serious when I say that I think that there's creative ways we can go about the rendering of consumer justice."
Gambitta said those creative plans not only will deliver justice for Mirasol residents, but also will restore confidence in the housing authority. For that to happen, potential homebuyers must be assured that there is going to be value and quality in Mirasol Homes, he said.
But some residents, including Martinez, long since have resigned themselves to expect inadequate repairs.
"I don't care how much you do to this house, it's never going to end," Martinez said. "It's awful when your dream goes down the drain."
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