Digging into Houston complex centered in lawsuit

All right, you guys, now I want to go to our reporter Belzer, who's following a story where there's an apartment complex here and it's got a lot of things wrong with it. There's gunfire. People say who live nearby. That happens. There's break ins. There's a portion of the apartment complex that is boarded up. People living there not paying rent, algae in the pool, you name it. There's a laundry list of things that is an issue. But now the county is looking to potentially shut that thing down, at least temporarily. So, Karis, give us the ins and outs. What exactly is happening here? Well, the county attorney is adding herself and a list of her complaints to a lawsuit that was already filed by the city last year. So this is going to somewhat delay the legal proceedings that were supposed to start in February. But here's the thing, there are still people who live here and there are also still people who live nearby, including people who live in a housing development that goes right up against the backside of these apartments. I spoke with one homeowner who said that a bullet actually went through his bathroom window and into the wall of his home. He says he was born and raised in this neighborhood, saw these apartments go up and has unfortunately seen them decline. Now, he along with other homeowners say they don't necessarily want to see the people who live here kicked out, but they do want to see the things that are making it hazardous to live here. Of course, the algae in the pool, the lack of security, things like that be addressed. Now the city filed its lawsuit in April of last year, alleging recurring criminal activity, bad security, failures and defendants denied those allegations initially. That included the owners, property managers. And now we know the people who own the land that the property sits on. And that's the kicker here. There are three different people who are responsible in some way, shape or form for what is going on across the street. Yet the company that owns the land, just the land, the company that owns the property, and then the company that manages the property. I've reached out to all of them, and I've had trouble hearing back from everyone. But essentially, for the neighbors who live nearby, they're hoping that this lawsuit will lead to some sort of recourse, not just for them, but the people who live there. Super Neighborhood 31 has been working with the city for the past 10 years to try to get those apartments cleaned up. We're all out here for the residents because we know people that live there. We've known people that live there. We've lived there and we want it to be a safe place for the residents to live. All right, so Karis, outline exactly what is the county asking the courts to do with this property? Essentially the county wants them to either close the property down for one year or put a point appointed manager in place to manage things like the rent payments because there are people paying rent and to address the much needed repairs. Anthony, I've seen them. A woman who lives in this building took me through the complex herself just yesterday. She showed me the bullet hole that was in her window that mind you, the complex still has not addressed. The algae in the pool, the overgrown grass, she says she's scared a snake or a rodent will come out of it. At any point, there's a gentleman who lives nearby who says that there are vacant apartments with broken locks that people can just get into at any point. And those are some of the things that they're hoping will be addressed and that the county wants to see changed as well. I'm Karis Belger for Fox26 News. Karis, before I let you go, and just so we're clear here, there's actually people paying rent at this property and some folks that are not paying property and essentially squatting? There are, yes. So that was something that not only I heard from neighbors, but was confirmed by the county attorney. So a gentleman who lives here, he did not want to appear on camera, but he's been very vocal with me off camera. He explained that he has two teenagers and that financially puts him in a hard spot in order to move. So for now, he's paying $1,200 a month to live in these apartments. One woman actually just before we came on air was driving by. She says she's paying rent, but hasn't had air conditioning for six months, Anthony. And here's the problem. You have these people who are in these dire straits, and some of them don't understand that they have other options. They're thinking they just have to wait until the complex addresses them. One woman, I was saying, if you call 311, you contact the city, they can put pressure on the complex to fix this. That's not something you have to live with. But it's hard because they're dealing with all of the other things that are also going on on this property as well. And last question, I guess when you have these apartment complexes, sometimes there's one point of contact to take care of the daily maintenance. Sometimes it can be multiple people. Looking at some of the paperwork you looked through here today, who exactly is responsible for this? Or is there a lot of different hands in this pot? Because it seems like there's some communication missing here somewhere because this has been going on for quite some time. There are a lot of different hands in the pot. So I called the leasing office and then I got one number. And then I was directed to another company for another number because that's just the company that manages the property. Then I looked through the legal filings and I found another company that supposedly owns the building, just the building itself. I've reached out to them. I have not heard back. Also in another lawsuit, the city's original lawsuit, there was another entity. I reached out to them. They explained to me that they only are responsible for the land underneath. they gave me another number for another company that just recently as of earlier this year, no longer has ownership because of bankruptcy filings that I also found. So there are a lot of hands in this pot. The paper trail is very hard to track. I reached out to the county attorney to say, hey, can your office tell me who owns this paperwork? They gave me the initial company I reached out to. So it seems that everyone is having a bit of trouble trying to figure out who is actually responsible for these apartments, Anthony. It is almost laughable, not even almost, it is laughable to really, when I hear you outline exactly what you had to do, I cannot believe that this is what's been going on here. But you know what, Karis, you earned that paycheck here today. Go ahead, get off camera, get home, relax, have yourself some dinner and enjoy because you definitely worked hard to get us some details. We'll continue to follow this story as it moves forward. Thank you.