HUMPH!!

It MUST be a matter of holding one's mouth just right - or the intercession via eMail from Ambulance Driver - b'cause I DO NOT understand how my access to/through Blogger is so hit-&-miss .......................

Here in the wilds NNE of Houston, folks are up in arms about Mayor Witless {my UNaffectionate term for Bill White}:

Home for mentally retarded stands to lose prime location
By MELANIE MARKLEY
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

For more than 40 years, it has occupied a prime chunk of public real estate near River Oaks caring for, employing and housing the mentally retarded.

But now the city of Houston is planning to sell the land to the highest bidder, meaning the nonprofit Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation has to find a new home.

The center's directors do not intend to go quietly. They have a 99-year lease signed with the city in the 1960s that required them to construct buildings and provide services for one of the city's neediest populations.

"I'm trying not to be real combative about it, but, doggone it, at the end of the day, if it comes to it, we'll fight," said Jack Manning, a member of the center's board. "We are not going to knuckle down and just move out."

But the city says the center may have no option.

The 99-year lease, signed in 1963 by then-Mayor Lewis Cutrer, is not valid, city lawyers argue, because the city charter limits such agreements to no more than 30 years.

And though the center has been paying the city $1 a year to lease the land, real estate investors say that particular tract, which sits on six acres between West Dallas and Allen Parkway near Shepherd, has become extremely valuable.

By real estate broker Stan Creech's estimate, it's worth about $26 million.

"That's Class A. It doesn't get any better," said Creech, who thinks the land would be choice for high-rise condominiums, in large part because of the unobstructed view of downtown to the east and River Oaks to the west.

Duty to taxpayers?

Citing their fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers, city officials say that selling the property would benefit more people in the long run.

And City Attorney Arturo Michel said it's not fair to give such a sweetheart deal to one nonprofit. In fact, the city has begun reviewing similar deals with other nonprofits housed on public property. The Lighthouse for the Blind nearby leases part of its property from the city, but officials say that lease, for 30 years, is valid. It's set to expire in 2030.

Mayor Bill White said he offered the center for those with mental retardation an opportunity to lease the property at a rate closer to market value, but he got no response.

"We are trying to make sure that we use the resources that we have to help the most number of people that are most in need," White said, adding that the city has offered to help the center find another location.

Manning said the market value of the property is too steep for his nonprofit, a United Way agency that has a budget of about $11 million a year. And, if center officials have to buy new land and spend tens of millions of dollars to replace the buildings left behind, the cost could get prohibitive.

Center officials also worry that the move seriously will jeopardize the centrally located services they provide for roughly 600 Houstonians.

Most at risk, they say, are the nearly 200 adults living in a dormitory on the property. The center faces the task of building new living quarters or finding other facilities and homes that can take them.

The center built the six-story Cullen Residence Hall after signing a 30-year lease with the city in 1972 to acquire an additional acre to go with the original five included in the 99-year lease.

Former Mayor Lee Brown's administration started to renew the lease when it expired in 2002, but, after White took office, it was never finalized. The center has been on a year-to-year lease ever since.

Executive Director Eva Aguirre said the center has more than held up its end of the lease, which required at least $17,200 in annual social services in trade for using the property. Aguirre said the center has provided more than $1 million in yearly services to people who can't afford to pay.

Array of services

Aside from a residence hall, the center runs a sheltered work site, vocational training, an adult day care for adults with severe mental and physical disabilities, and support services for clients living in apartments in the neighborhood.

The center also offers a life plan for mentally disabled people who are expected to outlive their parents and have no one else to take care of them.

Officials say they still hope to work something out with the city. But in a March 22 letter to the center's board, Real Estate Director Bob Christy made the city's plans clear.

The bid process, he said, likely would take place in the next six to nine months, and the center would have about three years to relocate. Any sale must be approved by the City Council.

Aguirre said the past few months have been very unsettling.

"It's difficult to plan for the future without knowing what the future is," Aguirre said.

Center officials have not yet told the people living in the Cullen Residence Hall that they may have to move. For many who live there, Aguirre said, "we are their support network, we are their family."

Residents are charged a flat rate to live there, and for those with no means, the center relies on donations and federal dollars to cover their care.

Many of the residents are middle-age or older. In fact, when the facility opened in the mid-1970s, Aguirre said, the average age of the residents was 23. Now it's closer to 53.

'I'm really, really worried'

Gwen Seammen said her 64-year-old son, Max, has lived in the residence hall since the day it opened.

"I'm really, really worried," said Seammen, 84. "They have a lot of freedom there, and yet they have a lot of supervision. ... It's his home, and I don't know what's going to happen if they close it."

Board President Wayne Johnson said there are no easy answers.

"The mayor has not put us in a good position," said Johnson, who has a 47-year-old daughter living in the residence hall. "And I'm not a happy camper."

Councilwoman Ada Edwards, whose district includes the center, said the city is in a difficult spot.

On the one hand, it's taxpayer money, and the city has a financial responsibility.

On the other hand, the city also has a moral and social responsibility, and there is no question the center provides valuable services to a vulnerable community.

"I think there is a larger issue that needs to be raised, and I hope the community will help us look at this issue," she said. "Because, if we do remove them, where will they go? And who will be responsible for their care?"

melanie.markley@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4678194.html

This is SO wrong, on SO many levels - I've yet to see anyone mention "eminent domain", but that's what this amounts to.

Mark my words, if the developers win, within 6 months at least 30% of the residents of the Home will be on the streets ........................

Witless is a liar & hypocrite - his own daughter was stopped for drunk driving, but was adjudicated 'not guilty' - wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall when THAT deal went down?

He claims that Houston isn't a 'sanctuary city', but the policies of the police & others give lie to THAT assertion - and people wonder why I don't want to live within Houston city limits ......................