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‘It’s just unreal and it’s unforgivable': SA Housing Authority’s winter weather response under scrutiny

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said he is proud of mobilization efforts, but said emergency response and preparedness plans need to be reviewed.

SAN ANTONIO — Community leaders are calling for accountability after some elderly and disabled residents at properties run by the government-funded San Antonio Housing Authority went without food or water due to the winter storm.

Former Bexar County Veterans Services Director Queta Rodriguez, mayoral candidate Greg Brockhouse and Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores were among those serving residents of SAHA properties across the city after receiving messages from and about residents and their loved ones who were without necessities.

Rodriguez chronicled the conditions at the facility, and others, on social media. She said she was drawn to the property after receiving a message from a friend on Facebook who said her mother at the Col. George Cisneros Apartments had been without water or electricity.

“We decided to just go out there and of course it was pitch black,” she recalled. "I posted a video on social media.”

She said she called the number for emergency maintenance and was told what the rest of the city would soon find out: The issue of electricity was out of their hands. Rodriguez returned to the property the next day and put out a call on social media for bottled water, blankets and other things.

"From from talking to the residents, nobody had been out there,” Rodriguez said. "I saw people walking in the parking lot outside because it was warmer outside than it was inside their apartments.”

Rodriguez said she was disappointed and disheartened as she encountered several residents hadn’t eaten much through the storm.

“It was simply something that you would not expect in one of the largest cities in the United States,” she said.

The storm and subsequent statewide energy failures caught many by surprise, but Rodriguez and Brockhouse said it’s what was in the control of local leaders that was important.

"The city, SAHA, they're not responsible for the power outages,” Rodriguez conceded. “It's not their fault, they didn't have any control over that. But the response to the crisis is absolutely their responsibility. And they should be held accountable. To not have an emergency meeting of the city council until Wednesday, I mean, we had already been, what? Four or five days into freezing temperatures.”

Brockhouse, like Rodriguez, ventured to the properties during the winter storm to provide any help they could. Brockhouse said he delivered meals to the Louis Chatham apartments on the city’s south side after Rodriguez shared the need.

"I went there myself and dropped off a bunch of food and what I saw and heard from the residents was just heartbreaking,” Brockhouse said. "This I know: I got there. They had no food. They had no electricity. The food I brought was pretty much the best food they'd seen in about 48 hours.”

Brockhouse said the conditions illustrated, in his opinion, a “terrible failure” on the part of leadership.

“These are residents telling me this to my face: ‘Greg, they left us behind. We don't have water,'" he said.

Brockhouse on Friday morning called for the removal of SAHA Chair Dr. Ana Margarita “Cha” Guzman and an evaluation of the response from interim SAHA CEO Ed Hinojosa.

Hinojosa disputed Rodriguez’s account of events, telling KENS 5 on Thursday he felt his staff responded urgently. He noted a common misconception is that the properties are assisted living facilities. He said all residents are independent, able to come and go and that the property does not provide food or other intensive services.

“I think we did well,” Hinojosa concluded of the agency’s response.

While Rodriguez and Brockhouse said SAHA staff was not on-site to assist residents, Hinojosa said his team began contacting residents a week prior to the storm, warning them of the impending freeze. In an email shared with KENS 5, Hinojosa responded to a concerned resident the evening of Feb. 16, telling the resident SAHA staff had been working to get elderly and disabled residents to warming shelters.

“Safety and comfort are our top priorities for our residents,” Hinojsa wrote. "Due to the challenging weather and driving conditions, much of our SAHA staff has been unable to travel from their homes and many do not have electricity or water. Some SAHA staff are using their personal vehicles to charge their cell phones in order to coordinate emergency requests throughout our communities.”

Clay-Flores served several meals at SAHA properties throughout the city, telling KENS 5 that while emergency officials cautioned people to stay off the roads, she felt a duty to constituents who were without necessities and braved the road conditions.

“If you're the manager of an apartment building where there are elderly residents, (and people without) financial resources, then it is your job,” Clay-Flores said of property managers. "And I feel like if that's your job and your staff's job, then you do whatever you need to do, whether that means you spend the night in your office or you make sure that other people are there to help manage the situation.”

Hinojosa said that when his team realized the gravity of the situation, they began coordinating efforts to secure food, water and heat for residents. He said staff also knocked on residents’ doors to see if they were in need.

Brockhouse and Rodriguez both contend that didn’t happen, or did not happen soon enough.

"I would ask CEO Hinojosa and Dr. Guzman directly: During the winter storm, what facility were you at that you verified the excellent response of SAHA?’” Brockhouse said. "I'm willing to bet that either one of them probably did not show up at their facilities. And if they made one, tell us which one.

"Tell us which one you went to that the response was excellent, Mr. Hinojosa. Dr. Guzman, which facility did you show up with, that you saw firsthand a robust response to the winter storm? Chances are based on citizen input, based on resident input, yeah, you didn't show up.”

It’s unclear whether Guzman or Hinojosa visited any properties during the storm. While Brockhouse did not immediately call for Hinojosa’s resignation or removal Friday morning, in an interview with KENS 5 he said it appeared Hinojosa, too, needed to be replaced.

Rodriguez and Brockhouse said through their experiences at the properties, there appeared to be no real emergency plan in place. KENS 5 on Monday filed an open records request for emergency protocol triggered in the event a property is without water or electricity over multiple days. 

The agency has 10 business days to respond; we have not yet heard back.

Asked to reconcile the harsh criticisms from local leaders and his own positive review of his agency’s response, Hinojosa said it was likely because most of their coordination took place behind closed doors.

“So much of the communication that was happening internally in our organization and with the city and with the mayor's office and with our food partners and, you know, us trying to find sources for bottled water and things of that sort,” Hinojosa explained "I mean, all of those communications are happening with our partner agencies and others, but we're not publicizing, you know, we don't publicize all of that that's happening. So it's possible that there's a misperception externally about what's being done.”

Brockhouse said if those efforts truly took place behind closed doors, it was essentially a masterclass in stealth. He said noticeably absent from the response as the storm ravaged the state were Hinojosa, Guzman and several elected officials.

"If Mr. Hinojosa was doing everything behind the scenes, as he is saying, he was so stealth about it, even his own residents didn't know,” Brockhouse said.

Had the community not intervened in the way it did, Rodriguez said she believes there would have been deaths at the facilities.

"I served in the military for 20 years,” Rodriguez said. “You don't leave people out on the battlefield. You don't leave people behind. And this is exactly what our leadership did. They just failed to act and just left people out to freeze to death. It's unreal and it's unforgivable."

Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Thursday said he was unaware of any issues at the properties and had delivered food alongside other local leaders. Brockhouse, who is challenging Nirenberg in the upcoming mayoral race, said  “the reason Ron didn’t know is because Ron didn’t go. He didn’t go to Chatham. He did not go to Fair Avenue. He did not go to Granada. He did not go to the West Side."

On Friday, Nirenberg sent an email to SAHA leadership, stating in part, "I am proud that the City of San Antonio, our partners, and our residents managed to mobilize to assist and aid our neighbors in need… However, I want to use this opportunity to ensure that the City and all our partner institutions reflect on their emergency preparedness and response plans."

Meanwhile, a local legislator says she plans to turn her focus to issues faced by those living at SAHA properties, following her observations that they "were left to fend for themselves throughout this week's electrical outages, water shortages and scarcity of food."

In the letter to SAHA leaders dated Feb. 19, Texas Rep. Elizabeth Campos requested a meeting to discuss new legislative priorities centered on improvements to "SAHA's response to future emergencies."

    

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