FBI raids controversial East Houston low-income housing project
HOUSTON - After years of public concern and outcry, federal agents descended Tuesday on the Houston Housing Authority's newly built 800 Middle Street low-income complex.
More than a dozen agents including specialists from the Environmental Protection Agency served a search warrant on the eastside project built for 400 families.
The $140 million complex has been subject to heavy scrutiny because it's surrounded by toxic dump sites - as first reported by FOX 26.
"It's important to remember that they plan to put hundreds of families here. That's 600 to 700 kids that are going to be playing in the neighborhood," said Alan Atkinson, a vocal critic of the project who says lead, arsenic and even dioxins are present on adjacent properties.
Atkinson has waged a five-year battle to expose the risk posed to residents.
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He believes both the Housing Authority and developer NRP lied to the Department of Housing and Urban Development about both the amount and location of toxic waste in order to gain access to $54 million Federal dollars to purchase the land located near Buffalo Bayou on Houston's East End.
By mid-afternoon Tuesday a drilling rig was deployed on the property bordering the complex likely to extract soil samples for testing.
Atkinson, who has worked in the neighborhood for decades, is confident the test wells will reveal a clear and present danger from decades of dumped ash from the City of Houston's long-shuttered Velasco garbage incinerator plant.
"In certain areas, they are going to find ash that's 22 feet deep, ash that's highly toxic created by the City of Houston incinerator property," said Atkinson.
That evidence could prove critical because HUD forbids the construction of low-income housing within 3000 feet of significant environmental hazards and if it is proven information was suppressed to gain access to federal funding criminal charges could follow.
"This is the worst possible place to build affordable housing and they knew it, privately behind the scenes, they knew it and we have the documents they knew about this contamination," said Atkinson.
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The Housing Authority has consistently claimed the complex is safe for habitation, but Houston Mayor John Whitmire put occupancy on indefinite hold until extensive, independent testing was completed.
"Mayor Whitmire is a hero," said Atkinson.
Well-known investigator Wayne Dolcefino has been raising the alarm about the project since 2019 and says today's raid was long overdue.
"These people are thieves because they are stealing from a bunch of poor kids, just so they can make a buck. It's just disgusting," said Dolcefino.