AUSTIN, Texas — An East Austin apartment complex making headlines for going without gas for more than 40 days is dealing with another dilemma, and this time, it’s not just about the gas. 

Now, construction crews are busy replacing the entire gas line, but residents at Mount Carmel Apartments have to relocate for up to three months. 

Shakita Plair has lived at the low-income housing complex for about nine years. One day, Plair was waiting in line outside the leasing office with dozens of her neighbors. They were there to meet with a relocation specialist, who is supposed to help them find temporary housing. 

Plair got into her appoint quickly, but some people were waiting for hours to find out their fate. 

“They said we were supposed to have appointments, but as you can see, another miscommunication,” she said.

The mother of five is pregnant, so finding temporary housing that is safe, clean, and big enough for her family has not proven to be easy. 

Evangelina Williams has lived at Mount Carmel for six years. She’s already had her appointment, but she’s also helped sort, fold, and hand out donated clothes, toys and shoes to her neighbors while staying in the loop on the latest information.

“I’m hearing all kinds of things about the situation, so I really don’t know, that’s why I’m up here trying to hear for myself,” she said.

More than a week later, some residents say they still don’t know where they will end up. 

Linda Nicholas has also been waiting for her appointment, while providing some comic relief. She has lived at Mount Carmel for 16 years and says if she had the choice, she wouldn’t leave. 

“It’s just me, I can make it,” she said. “But the people who have children, the elderly, I can understand how they feel.”

Residents received a notice on their door from property management stating that construction would take up to three months, but that it would be done in phases, so residents could move back in once each building’s gas line was replaced. In an email to Spectrum News 1, a Eureka Multifamily Group spokesperson writes:

“Under city and state guidelines, the units are not habitable given no hot water. Relocation is a requirement under law. At the direction and approval of HUD, we have engaged a relocation specialist who will handle all the required paperwork and temporary relocation of our tenants to safe, clean and sanitary housing. This team of experts will conduct personal interviews with tenants to reaffirm relocation needs and special requirements related to temporary relocation. Then they will coordinate with hotels or apartment communities and ensure residents are placed in suitable, temporary housing. Our relocation partner is endorsed by the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) and SW Housing Compliance Corp (SHCC), the administer of HUD’s subsidy programs in the State of Texas.”

This statement comes after families already went more than 40 days without hot water, hot food, or heat, only now to be told the property is unsafe.

Property management claimed the gas leak was because of the Texas snowstorm, but a Texas Gas Services public information officer told Spectrum News 1 this was in no way a cause of freezing temperatures. Residents say the gas leaks have been a problem long before February. 

Williams says she’s been smelling gas since she moved in. 

“If I smelled it, everybody else smelled it,” she said. “You should have done something about it then, is what I’m saying.”

Mount Carmel is 50 years old and about 10 acres, according to county property records. Eureka Multifamily group took over the property in 2008. Since then, they say they have had only had one report of a gas leak in 2017.

The Railroad Commission of Texas oversees properties like Eureka that operate and distribute their own gas.

Public information officers told Spectrum News 1 they have no records of gas leaks, but when asked about the last time it was inspected, a spokesperson only said an inspector had been to the property “recently.”

However, Eureka’s spokesperson says the Railroad Commission has never inspected the property. These properties are required to do a leak detection survey every two years. 

Here are the responses Eureka’s spokesperson gave Spectrum News 1 via email:

“Eureka has provided inspection reports from our engineer to the Railroad Commission dating back over the last five years, with the last inspection occurring in Q4, 2020. There is no report of a gas leak in any of these reports. The Railroad Commission has never inspected the property. Eureka is in the process of filing a P5 application.”

Mount Carmel is a Department of Housing and Urban Development property, so they are responsible for making sure the property meets certain standards. According to a spokesperson, the last time HUD inspected the property was in 2016. We asked for previous inspection records and are still waiting on an answer. 

Austin Area Urban League President Quincy Dunlap says these agencies failed this community. In a Zoom interview, he told Spectrum News 1 that Mount Carmel was not an isolated incident. He says these infrastructure issues were from a lack of investment in Black and brown neighborhoods, neglected long before the storm. 

“The private entities not being transparent and the bureaucracies failing to hold them accountable,” Dunlap said. 

A 2021 National Low Income Housing Coalition study found that Texas was one of the worst states in the country for affordable housing. Because of wealth gaps, discriminatory loan practices and redlining, minority groups are less likely to be homeowners than their white counterparts. 

Numbers from The Eviction Solidarity Network’s Travis County report show renters make up 55% of Austin’s population. This number was disproportionately higher among minority groups. Renters make up 71% of Black residents in Austin, 65% of Hispanics, and 56% of Asians, compared to 48% of whites. 

Dunlap says because of those wealth gaps that keep minorities from being homeowners, renters of color often live in government housing, like Mount Carmel, which often have failing infrastructure. 

“The owners and the partners like HUD need to step up and do the right thing by the community,” Dunlap said. 

With help from BASTA, another nonprofit organization, Mount Carmel residents officially formed a tenants council and put together a petition, which they gave to the property management. While nonprofits and community leaders stepped in to help Mount Carmel residents, they say the spotlight should be on tenants who never stopped fighting for their rights or each other.