Listen
A couple of hundred people showed up at a meeting Thursday night to protest Metro’s plan to sell the former Pinemont lot to the Houston Housing Authority. Housing officials want to use the property for 300 units of what’s called “workforce housing.”
David Ashton moved to the neighborhood near U.S. 290 and Pinemont about a year ago. He worries another large apartment complex would only bring problems.
“We hear gunshots at night. We have helicopters circling sometimes,” says Ashton.
But Houston Housing Authority President Tory Gunsolly says the apartments would be rented to people who work, but who make about 60% of the area’s median income.
“So you’re talking about typically one-parent households with one or two children, somebody who’s working full-time at a lower paying job,” explains Gunsolly.
The proposed sale is now in the preliminary stages, and Gunsolly says there will be numerous public meetings if they decide to go forward. Metro and the Housing Authority are both expected to take action on the sale at their board meetings next week.