Flooding aftermath brings long-sought funding

RIO GRANDE CITY - The enormous mud puddle had an unexpected silver lining at the bottom.

Thanks in part to last summer's disastrous flooding, Starr County will receive $5.1 million to build a new public housing complex.

About half of the 34 Starr County Housing Authority apartments on Circle Drive were inundated in the countywide floods in June and July 2007. But rather than patch up the 1970s-era, un-air-conditioned units, the organization instead asked the city to condemn the entire complex.

For eight years, Starr County leaders had unsuccessfully requested money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace the complex. Always, the answer was there wasn't enough money to go around.

By condemning the apartments, though, they qualified for emergency funding and were approved.

"(Condemning the units) certainly helped. It really put HUD in a really tough situation," said Manuel Benavidez, the chairman of the local Housing Authority board.

"We have a binder here and this goes back to the '80s," said the authority's executive director, Elmo Moreno. "There was a flood in 1981, there was one basically every year, every other year..."

"Every time the thing flooded, we get the people out, then put them back when we get it cleaned out," he said.

Starr's Housing Authority has another 44-unit apartment complex and gives 204 more families vouchers to use in approved rental housing.

"Housing needs are just phenomenal," Benavidez said.

The 34 families from the Circle Drive complex are now scattered around the county. Some have moved in with family members; others are receiving housing vouchers to pay their same, lower rent for private housing, which is in short supply in many areas.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, helped the county push for the $5 million grant.

"We're pretty excited," Cuellar said. "Starr County is one of those counties that needs a lot of assistance."

A location for the complex had yet to be decided, although officials are eyeing the area northwest of downtown Rio Grande City.

Moreno said he wants a 10-acre lot with room to build more apartments. He said he dreams of recreation spaces, a computer lab and yards for each unit.

But he said with the first grant, he will settle for air-conditioning the new units.

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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.