Gulfton, Houston

Gulfton is a community in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States that includes a group of apartment complexes that primarily house refugee and immigrant populations. It is located between the 610 Loop and Beltway 8, west of the City of Bellaire, southeast of Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59, and north of Bellaire Boulevard.

In the 1960s and 1970s Gulfton experienced rapid development, with new apartment complexes built for young individuals from the Northeast and Midwest United States. They came to work in the oil industry during the 1970s oil boom.

In the 1980s, as the economy declined, existing tenants left, resulting in a significant drop in occupancy rates in the apartment complexes and forcing many complexes into bankruptcy and foreclosure. Owners marketed the empty units to newly arrived immigrants and Gulfton became a predominantly immigrant community. Beginning in the 1980s Gulfton's crime rate increased and schools were increasingly overwhelmed with excess students. "Houstonians" (Houston citizens) nicknamed the community the "Gulfton Ghetto." The city of Houston responded to the sudden demographic shifts by increasing police presence, and the school district responded by opening more schools to handle the influx of students. After the 1980s demographic and socioeconomic transitions, Gulfton gained a community college campus, two additional elementary schools, added public bus routes, a park, a community center, a public library, and a juvenile detention facility.

By 2000 Gulfton was the most densely populated community in Houston, with 71 percent Hispanic residents, including many recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Although traditionally a Salvadoran and Mexican neighborhood, many immigrants began coming from different Latin-American countries, particularly from Venezuela, Honduras, Cuba, Guatemala and Colombia. There are also Americas citizens from other states and territories like Puerto Rico.

History

1950s to 1979

Before 1950, Gulfton consisted of farm land and much of the area belonged to Westmoreland Farms. In the mid-1950s, the Shenandoah subdivision was established; consisting of sixteen city blocks of ranch-style homes. Shenandoah was located adjacent to the land which would later become the site of the Gulfton apartment complexes. Decades later these communities would clash as the apartments surrounding Shenandoah deteriorated and property values became threatened.

Due to the large parcels of land available and the grid road pattern, Gulfton was well-suited for the construction of large apartment complexes. In the 1960s, a number of large apartment buildings were built. More complexes were added during the 1970s as Houston prospered from the oil boom. These apartments catered to young, predominantly Caucasian workers from the Rust Belt regions of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States employed in the burgeoning oil industry. Americans came from the South, the Midwest, New York, and California to live in the area of complexes. The complexes also housed some individuals from western and eastern Europe, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South America, and Vietnam. Few native Houstonians lived in the housing complexes. The apartments were given names meant to be fancy, such as "Napoleon Square" and "Chateau Carmel." Some complexes gave free videocassette recorders to renters who signed leases for one year.

According to Jim Gaines, director of the Jesse H. Jones Center for Economic and Demographic Forecasting at Rice Center, a Rice University-affiliated urban research center, the development of these apartment complexes was not well planned or coordinated. There was often little interest in building a quality product as developers were primarily concerned with generating quick revenue and capitalizing on the deregulation of financial institutions, tax laws favoring apartment construction, inflation, and a housing shortage in the Houston metropolitan area.

1980-1992

In the mid-1980s the Houston-area oil industry economy declined and more than 200,000 jobs were lost from the local economy. Thousands of renters left causing a rise in apartment vacancies. Many apartment complexes throughout the Houston area experienced bankruptcy, foreclosure, and frequent turnover in ownership. Colonial House Apartments, which became known throughout the Houston area from advertisements featuring California promoter Michael Pollack, is an example as they faced foreclosure. DRG Funding, a mortgage lender headquartered in Washington, DC, took over the complex. On September 16, 1988 the Government National Mortgage Association took over Colonial House Apartments and other properties of DRG, after DRG fell behind on its mortgage. On Wednesday, May 11, 1989, the Colonial House Apartments were auctioned off to an out-of-state investment group for USD $8.9 million ($ million in today's money) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development realized a $42 million ($ million in today's money) loss. The following year Colonial House was renamed "Lantern Village."

Marketing to an influx of immigrant workers, owners abandoned "adult only" policies (prohibiting children), listed vacancies in Spanish, and reduced rents. Despite the rent reduction, a July 17, 1988 ''Houston Chronicle'' article stated that rates for poorly maintained apartments in Gulfton and other Houston areas were comparable to well-maintained apartments in other parts of the city. According to Gaines, complexes in Gulfton began to cater to illegal immigrants and landlords allowed renters to "double-up" housing (several individuals and/or families living in a unit). John Goodner, a Houston city council member who represented a district that included Gulfton at that time, said that more demographic changes occurred within his district in the years leading up to 1988 than in any other part of the city. He was referring to the shift in the demographics of various apartment complexes. Goodner said that the complex owners were unconcerned about this development as long as the rent payments were made. Landlords had difficulty filling apartment complexes even if they did not require background checks. Many banks and lending institutions owned foreclosed apartments and failed to properly maintain them, considering it "pouring money down a perceived rat hole." Gaines added that many complexes deferred maintenance.

Many of the new Gulfton residents found limited access to government services such as food stamps and municipal and county health care. By July 1989, the Gulfton area was designated by Houston's city council as a "Community Development Target." These provided low-income communities with increased city services supplemented with federal funding. This drew a response from the Houston Resident Citizens Participation Council (HRCPC), a citizen commission that monitored funding for low-income residents. Board members formally protested city council against diverting support funds from the "old poor" in existing low-income areas to the "new poor" in newly created communities. The HRCPC members argued that the original "Community Development Targets" were not fully served prior to the service areas expanding and budgets shrinking. The council had no authority to force any changes in public policy. Rose Mary Garza, then the principal of Cunningham Elementary School, stated that some government officials were reluctant to expand services to Gulfton as they believed the low-income apartments would be bulldozed. During his time city council member Goodner lobbied for a satellite health department clinic for apartment renters.

Robert Fisher, professor and chair of Political Social Work at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Houston, and Lisa Taaffe, a project manager for Houston's "Communities in Schools," stated in "Public Life in Gulfton: Multiple Publics and Models of Organization," a 1997 article, that the development and decline of Gulfton originated from a, "purely short term, relatively spontaneous speculative process." They state that the process focused on building apartment complexes, clubs, and warehouses for short-term profit without providing supporting infrastructure such as parks, libraries, recreation centers, small blocks, and sidewalks.

In 1985, recent Salvadoran immigrants opened the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) to provide legal services for central American immigrants. Between 1988 and 1992 CARECEN cooperated with the Central American Refugee Committee (CARC) to publicize and advocate issues related to the Salvadoran Civil War and the immigration of Salvadorans to the United States. In 1988, various religious representatives created the Gulfton Area Religious Council (GARC) open for any Christian church to join. GARC advocated assistance for Gulfton residents and established focused programs. Taafe and Fisher suggest that GARC focused on relieving the symptoms of poverty instead of removing its causes. Representative Goodner, described as "conservative" by Fisher and Taafe, organized a March 3, 1989, town hall meeting which sparked the creation of an organization called the Gulfton Area Action Council (GAAC). The GAAC was made up of business owners who advocated the reduction of recreational drug use, local crime, and the improvement of the neighborhood, in an effort to restore property values.

In the late 1980s, the Southwest Houston Task Force was established as a coalition of representatives from the City of Houston government, health and human services organizations, businesses, schools, religious organizations, and Gulfton-area residents. The Task Force held two meetings related to the proposal for the establishment of a municipal health clinic in Gulfton. The organization's meetings led to the opening in 1991 of the ''Sisters of Charity Southwest Health Clinic'', the Gulfton area's first major health clinic. Jointly operated by the GAAC and the City of Houston, the clinic provided pre-natal and child care services. Fisher and Taafe state that the organization "lost its focal issue" after the clinic opened. After performing a "community needs assessment" and identifying "local leaders", the organization disbanded in early 1992. During the same year the Salvadoran Civil War ended but CARECEN continued to provide legal services, publications, and advocacy for Central American immigrants. They also began campaigning the federal government to provide permanent legal residency to the Salvadoran refugees.

1992-2009

In August 1992, Mike McMahon of the GAAC and Francisco Lopez of CARECEN founded the Gulfton Area Neighborhood Organization (GANO). In 1995, CARECEN merged with GANO as both organizations had board members and goals in common. Fisher and Taafe said in the 1997 article ''Public Life in Gulfton: Multiple Publics and Models of Organization'' that the merger into GANO made cooperation between the members of the combined "progressive" GANO and Shenandoah Civic Association with the more "conservative" GAAC unlikely. By 1993, Gulfton received 500 new street lights, paved streets, and new sidewalks as part of the City of Houston's "Neighborhoods to Standard" program.

In 1997, Gulfton received a federal designation as a National Weed & Seed site from OJJDP and TDPRS designation which provided the community with close to $7 million dollars in grant funding that would target criminal activity while providing social services for at-risk youth and families in the 77081 zip code. Nyelene Qasem, Gulfton Weed & Seed Coordinator, established the Gulfton Community Learning Center, Campo del Sol Summer Day Camp Program, the Campo del Sol After School Program and the Gulfton Education Center, in strategically located areas of Gulfton in an attempt to provide ESL classes, Citizenship classes, gang intervention, apartment outreach/community policing efforts and Computer classes-all free of charge, to any resident interested in attending. From 1999–2004, the Gulfton Community Learning Center and the Gulfton Education Center provided free computer classes to over 800 community residents. From 1998-2004, more than 3,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18 attended the free summer day camp offered at Burnett Bayland Park. The Campo del Sol After School program provided teens from Jane Long Middle School after school enrichment programming and TAKS tutorials from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Many of the collaborative efforts were noted by the Houston Chronicle, Telemundo, PBS, La Voz and smaller newspapers from the area.

On July 11, 1998, Houston Police Department officers acting on a tip regarding drug-related activities entered a Gulfton apartment complex and shot and killed Pedro Oregon Navarro. The circumstances of the event were disputed. By October 19 of that year, a Harris County grand jury cleared the officers of charges related to the incident. Nestor Rodriguez, a professor of sociology at the University of Houston, described Gulfton as "a place where people are just struggling to get by." Consequently, there were fewer "displays of outrage" than would have been expected if the incident had occurred in one of the "older, well-established Latino communities." Oregon's killing was controversial because illicit drugs were not found on the property. Oregon's family sued the City of Houston arguing that the raid was inappropriate. The city countered that its officers acted in an appropriate manner. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2000.

Beatrice Marquez, a Houston Independent School District (HISD) parent involvement specialist for the Gulfton area, stated in a 2004 ''Education Week'' article that members of the Central American communities specifically identify themselves with Gulfton rather than Houston.

2020

In the COVID-19 pandemic as of July 31, 2020 13 people in Gulfton died and authorities confirmed that 1,100 had been infected with COVID-19. Rose-Ann Aragon of KPRC-TV wrote that the pandemic "hit Gulfton hard".

Geography

Gulfton is located in Southwest Houston outside the 610 Loop. Gulfton is about southwest of Downtown Houston and approximately west of Bellaire. Susan Rogers of the Rice Design Alliance describes Gulfton is an example of an "inner ring" area of Greater Houston which is located between downtown and the suburbs. Rogers states that the "outwardly conventional landscapes" of "inner ring" areas are "neither urban nor suburban, but a conglomeration of both, a hybrid condition mixed from one part global city, one part garden suburb, and one part disinvestment."

Gulfton includes about 90 apartment complexes with more than 15,000 units. Lori Rodriguez of the ''Houston Chronicle'' said that Gulfton, "with its rows of down-at-the-heels apartments that still bear jaunty names from their swinging-singles days, makes an incongruous gateway for the newest waves of immigrants and their many children." Roberto Suro of ''The Washington Post'' described Gulfton as a "tightly packed warren." Some of the apartment complexes are over one block long. In the 1970s one of the apartment complexes contained seventeen swimming pools, seventeen hot tubs, seventeen laundry rooms, and two club houses. Gulfton also contains strip malls and office blocks. The complexes generally contain features catering to single adults and lack features appreciated by families, due to the initial market targeted in the 1970s. , Gulfton has more than one hundred semi-private swimming pools but many of them have been filled in and are no longer usable. Some apartments in Gulfton have businesses located in ground floor units. Several area tract houses are occupied by beauty salons, small stores, and tire repair shops. Rogers contends that the mixed-use adaptation, "has occurred spontaneously from the bottom up, indicative of the entrepreneurial spirit of residents and their need to adapt existing space for new uses." A 2000s City of Houston report on Study Area 8, which includes Gulfton and surrounding areas, states that Gulfton's "large apartment complexes dominate the area's landscape." John Nova Lomax of the ''Houston Press'' described Gulfton as "uglier" than a group of apartment complexes along Broadway Street in eastern Houston.

The size of the city blocks in Gulfton differs significantly from that of Downtown Houston in that sixteen downtown city blocks will fit into one Gulfton block. Few sidewalks exist in Gulfton. In 1999 Houston City Council District F representative Ray Discroll said " ulfton residentsdon't have sidewalks, let alone sidewalks that are only two and a half feet wide. There are pregnant women walking down the sides of the roads." In 2005 the Houston-Galveston Area Council identified Gulfton as one of the most hazardous communities for pedestrians. Dug Begley of the ''Chronicle'' wrote in 2019 that "pedestrians and cyclists, navigate streets designed for cars that can leave residents facing wide intersections with fast, unimpeded right turns and signal timing that forces younger, elderly and disabled travelers to hustle, as hundreds of cars pass by." That year the organization Together for Safer Roads planned to fund a study on Hillcroft Road, discussing ways of making pedestrians there safer, with $150,000; it plans to work with the municipal government.

One complex, Napoleon Square, was built in 1971 for $22 million; the 1,884 unit complex, owned by real estate figure Harold Farb, included a $400,000 disco and many swimming pools. In 1977 it had a main swimming pool, twelve other swimming pools, and a club called "Bonaparte's Retreat." Within a radius of the main entrance to Napoleon Square, 5,000 apartment units in at least twelve apartment facilities, about forty swimming pools, about or more than twenty-four bars and nightclubs, and about twelve tennis courts. A subsidiary of Western Capital purchased the complex in March 1985. As of 1999, about 1,500 families reside in the complex, and most of them originated from Mexico, Central America, and South America. many families at Napoleon Square came from Mexico, Honduras, other Central American countries, and South America. The Napoleon Square and Lantern Village complexes have a combined total of over 1,000 units and, , several thousand inhabitants.

Demographics

Between 1980 and 2000 the population of Gulfton increased by almost 100% without significant additional residences built. Between the 1990 U.S. Census and the 2000 Census, the counted Hispanic population in Gulfton increased from 18,422 to 33,424, an 81% increase, and the non-Hispanic White population decreased from 6,371 to 4,908, a 23% loss. Occupancy rates at many apartment complexes increased; for instance, Napoleon Square's rate increased from 60% around 1996 to over 95% in 2001. Mike McMahon, the co-founder of the Gulfton Area Neighborhood Organization (GANO), said that increased census worker efforts to ensure a more accurate population count may have also contributed to the increase.

2020s

In 2021 about 12% of households in Gulfton did not have cars, while the Houston average was around 6%.

2010s

In 2015 the City of Houston-defined Gulfton Super Neighborhood #27, which includes Gulfton and various surrounding subdivisions, had 41,089 residents, with 14,508 people per square mile. 73% were Hispanic or Latino, 15% were non-Hispanic black, 7% were non-Hispanic white, 6% were non-Hispanic Asians, and 2% were non-Hispanic others. - See attached map on page 2 In 2020 Hispanics and Latinos made up about 69% of the residents, the median income was $26,042, and the average life expectancy of Gulfton was about 75.9. Of the residents, 95% rented their residences. Rose-Ann Aragon of KPRC-TV wrote that "The culture of the neighborhood is rich but it’s dwindling in economic wealth."

2000s

By 2005, 60% of Gulfton residents were not native born and represented citizenship from forty-two countries. Many residents were illegal immigrants. More than 20% of the households did not own cars. Starting in the mid-1980s, the Gulfton population experienced increases in female and children populations. Peg Purser, an urban planner who directed a 1991 University of Houston Center for Public Policy study commissioned by the ''Houston Chronicle'', identified that the Hispanic population growth in the Gulfton area was almost entirely from Central American countries. According to the study, between the 1980 and 1990 U.S. Censuses, Hispanic population density increased by 3,500 persons per square mile. Between 1990 and 2000, the population of the area within the Gulfton Super Neighborhood increased by 13,347, from 33,022 residents to 46,369 residents or 40%.

The 2000 census identifies Gulfton as a "hard to enumerate" tract with the densest neighborhood in the City of Houston, estimated at 45,000 people in approximately . Some community leaders believed that the actual population was closer to 70,000. In a 2006 National Center for School Engagement report, Susana Herrera, the program coordinator for Houston's Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project, indicated that social service agencies and government officials estimated Gulfton's population to be 60,000, with 20,000 juveniles. Under-representation in the census was likely as many of the area's immigrants, especially those residing in the country illegally, may have been distrustful of the government's attempt to obtain personal information. Jaime de la Isla, the assistant superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, said in 2000 that it was possible that the district lost significant amounts of money because residents of Gulfton were not counted in the 1990 United States Census, and that the district receives federal funds for bilingual programs, free and reduced lunch, and special education based on numbers in the U.S. census. Steve Murdock, a demographer for the state of Texas, said that " e major problem in an undercount is not an immigration issue. It's always difficult to count any population that is highly mobile, poor and living in a diversity of households."

, 31% of residents in Gulfton had an annual income of less than $15,000 ($ in today's money). By January 30, 2007, some 45% of the families included small children. By that same date, many Gulfton families earned less than $25,000 U.S. dollars ($ in today's money) per year and were dependent on public assistance. By 2006, the median family income in Gulfton was $18,733 ($ in today's money) or 30% less than the city of Houston's median income level.

By 2000, many Gulfton residents had recently immigrated from Mexico or other Latin American countries. In 2000 the super neighborhood reported a population of 46,369 people, of whom 34,410 (74%) were Hispanic, 5,029 were white, 4,047 were black, 2,081 were Asian, 61 were Native American, 13 were Native Hawaiian, and 97 were of other races and were not Hispanic. 631 were of two or more races. , Gulfton has citizens of 82 countries, and 16 languages are spoken in the community. Gulfton had a density of 16,000 people per square mile, while as a whole the area within the 610 Loop has a density of 3,800 people per square mile.

Of the 32,298 reported residents older than 18, 22,941 (71%) were Hispanic, 4,064 were non-Hispanic white, 2,980 were black, 1,715 were Asian, 38 were Native American, 10 were Native Hawaiian, and 65 were of other races and were not Hispanic. 485 were of two or more races.

The super neighborhood contained 17,467 housing units, with 15,659 occupied units, 14,865 rental units, and 794 owner units. Super Neighborhood #27 had 9,930 families with 36,019 individuals counted in the census. The super neighborhood's average family size was 3.63, compared with a city average of 3.39.

The St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities 2007 Community Health Report on Gulfton, which includes some areas north of Gulfton, notes the U.S. Census reported the area to have 60,637 people in 2000. Since 1990, that area's population has increased by 16,000 people (over 26%) and the area's Hispanic population increased by nearly 16%. In a twenty-year span ending in 2000, the non-Hispanic white population decreased by 50%. In 1980 only about 15% of the area population consisted of children, by 2000 that had risen to nearly 30% of the population.

Government

Local government

Gulfton is served by the Houston Police Department's South Gessner Division (previously Fondren Patrol Division). Previously the Gulfton area was served by the Southwest Patrol division, then headquartered on Beechnut Street. A June 1999 report entitled the ''Gulfton Community Five Year Plan'', produced by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, stated that the sudden changes in Gulfton's population exceeded the police department's ability to adapt. The establishment of the Gulfton Storefront Station augmented the police department's presence in Gulfton. This station, originally located near the Napoleon Square Apartments, opened in the summer of 1990 with the City of Houston paying one dollar a month to the real estate company managing the complex. The Gulfton Area Action Council paid the utility bills, estimated at $5,000 per month in 1990 ($ in today's money). The Civic Association of Shenandoah also provides support for the establishment of the sub-station. By 1998 the Fondren Patrol division was established with responsibility for the area. The storefront moved to its current location in 2017.

The Houston Fire Department provides fire protection services. Its Fire District 68 Primary Run Area covers Gulfton and is located near Fire Station 51 Sharpstown, a part of Fire District 68. The community is within Super Neighborhood #27 Gulfton and its recognized council was established on June 22, 2000. Each super neighborhood represents a community advocacy block of civic clubs, places of worship, businesses, and other community interests.

Houston City Council District J now covers Gulfton. District J was created in 2011 to allow Hispanic voters to more easily select candidates who cater to them. Robert Jara, a political consultant of the group Campaign Strategies, drew the boundaries of District J in order to ensure that Gulfton and Sharpstown