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Inside Today: Oak Forest resident launches new eBook • 1B

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Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North Houston

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s ’ e n e l r a D

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Saturday, October 4, 2014 • Vol. 60 • No. 48

City to remove subjectivity from historic ordinance ABOUT US 3500 East T.C. Jester Blvd Suite A (713) 686-8494 news@theleadernews.com www.theleadernews.com Facebook/THE LEADER.

AREA SPECIALIST

Jonathan McElvy jonathan@theleadernews.com For more than a year, homeowners, builders, architects and even local newspapers have called on the city of Houston to improve its historic preservation ordinance. In the Heights, the ordinance has pitted neighbors against each other, and has left builders and architects wondering how to appease both the city and their clients.

Mayor Annise Parker and officials in the city’s Planning & Development Department have responded. Their effort to make improvements to the amended 2010 Historic Preservation Ordinance began in earnest on Monday night when a 5-member committee opened discussions on ways to add predictability and remove subjectivity of renovating or building homes in the city’s historic districts. There may be no better example of the need for See Ordinance, P. 2A

Photo by Jonathan McElvy Patrick Walsh, director of the city’s Planning & Development Department (left) and Rob Hellyer, address members of the committee charged with improving the 2010 Historic Preservation Ordinance.

Forgotten travelers

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By Betsy Denson bestsy@theleadernews.com

Grand Opening

The Kroger on 43rd cut the grand opening ribbon on Sept. 24 and are finished with construction.

Kroger finalizes construction and opens doors with new amenities The Kroger on 43rd put up $6 million for their remodel project. Store Director Jeff Bailey says enhanced sections customers can find are: beer and wine, the nutritional shop, the cheese section and floral shop. Additional amenities are new basket carts and more urban (small) carts, more check-out lanes, a new floor, new refrigerators, ovens, equipment and the shopping lanes now all run parallel. Bailey says even though the the store walls didn’t get bigger, the renovation allows for more space and a better flow.

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FIND IT ONLINE. While some residents may be ready to bid farewell to the Northwest Mall after news of its sale listing broke, its tenents aren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of having to pack up and move. Read online for more about how the owner of Thompson’s Antique Center is taking the news.

THE INDEX. Church

5A

Classifieds

6A

Coupons

4A

Food/Drink/Art Obituaries

9A 5A

Opinion

3A

Public Information Puzzles Pets

2A 8A 4A

Autism school takes landlord to court after dispute is unresolved

Photos by Jonathan Garris A man sleeps benath Heights Boulevard south of the Katy Freeway. Even in the Heights and other more affluent parts of Northwest Houston, the homeless face numerous issues relating to violence, crime and addiction across local communities.

White Oak Bayou-area homeless face addiction, mental health issues, violence without help By Jonathan Garris jgarris@theleadernews.com For one Heights area resident, a series of encounters with the area’s homeless residents has been an eye opening experience. While on a morning bike to work, Jacob, an artist living in the Heightswho opted to use an alias for this story, decided to rest along his normal route to take in some of the sights several months ago. He was particularly interested in the some of the bridges around the area, something he hadn’t been used to seeing. “It was exciting,” Jacob said. “I’ve always had a habit of looking at something like this in a very visual and artistic way as you might imagine.” During this particular stop, a disheveled-looking man approached Jacob “from out of nowhere,” and struck up a conversation. From there, Jacob would learn not only about the individual, but also those living under the bridges near places like Heights Boulevard near the Katy Freeway. “I had no knowledge of these people living beneath the bridges before I started living here,” Jacob said. “I guess I was approachable to some of them as many of them were making small talk, I think, and it just became general conversation here and there.” As the months passed, and Jacob’s interactions continued during his morning commute and rests, Jacob said he was struck by the way a number of the homeless individuals openly discussed how they made what little living they could. “I would keep my distance, but I was sort of getting to know them through these one-on-one conversations,” Jacob said. “After time they would casually talk about stealing bikes and breaking them down or even just periodically breaking into places.” Jacob claims many of them said they did it as a way to pay for their drug and alcohol addictions. While some Jacob met were docile and even gentle, Jacob said he and others living in the area have become worried about the danger to public safety those with mental health issues or addictions might be.

“I feel like I’m seeing the amount of people congregating under these bridges grow more and more,” Jacob said. “I know I’ve talked to people and I’ve certainly felt that we really need a group or committee with the resources and funds to keep these people from Photo by Jonathan Garris staying under these bridges and in our A small living area sits vacant under the Katy Freeway Service Road near Studemont Street. community. It’s unfortunate, because many of them appear to be addicts and they into the Harris County Neuropsychiatric Center, where they are seen by are not going to listen to logic.” It’s an issue that officials like Pre- a licensed medical psychiatrist. This cinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen under- professional can petition the court system if the patient needs to stay for stands all too well. a longer duration of time to address their mental health situation, and the A Failing System Rosen sits on the Criminal Justice system has become another valuable Coordination Council in Harris Coun- tool for law enforcement around the ty and his department also serves county. “However, unless they’re willing mental health warrants for the entire to get help, it’s very difficult to force county. Rosen said most of the homeless population is directly connected someone if they’re not committed,” to drug abuse, alcoholism and other Rosen said. “With homelessness, we addictions that can be affected by or have to strike a balance between putcontributed to by mental illnesses. ting someone in jail and getting someSome of these homeless citizens one the mental health they need. When it comes to continually jailwho commit petty crimes can come ing those suffering from mental illthrough the county jail system over ness among the homeless community, 100 times a year. “Our entire criminal justice com- Rosen said locking people up simply munity here in Houston is looking at a isn’t going to solve the problem. “No one is going to succeed in the way to divert those people away from mental health program in a jail envithe jail system into a comprehensive mental health program,” Rosen said. ronment,” Rosen said. “It’s not con“I’ve helped run mental health war- ducive to dealing with mental health rants for years and these people have issues and healing. There’s a real cona lot of trouble with issues that have nection between what we’re seeing never fully been dealt with. I think with chemical dependency, mental illness and homelessness, but bewe’re somewhat failing them.” From a law enforcement perspec- cause the families or friends have had tive, officials have to address both enough of dealing with the person in the law breaking components and the question, they end up on the street. long-term implications of untreated It’s a very sad situation, and there is homeless citizens. In serving mental an impetus in Harris County right now health warrants, family or loved ones to do a better job.” must demonstrate that a person in Finding Shelter question is a danger to themselves Jacob claims that not all of the and police act upon an emergency dehomeless individuals he has had intertention order. Those who are picked up are placed See Homeless, P. 2A

While there have been some high profile examples of landlord-tenant litigation in The Leader area recently, such as Zelko Bistro’s lawsuit to prevent their landlord from evicting the restaurant, there are also many smaller disputes that get less publicity — yet still matter deeply to the parties involved. Lauren Harrington Abel is the founder of The Institute for Special Needs Children, LLC, who also started The Next Step Academy nine years ago as a day treatment program to educate those with developmental delays, including autism. She started the school in her own home on B ro o k wo o d s Drive in Oak Forest and then leased a home at 3913 B ro o k wo o d s Lauren Harrington Abel once she started to expand. Abel saw opportunity when the next door neighbor of 3913 Brookwoods, attorney John Boudreaux, decided to move with his family to Kingwood. She signed a year lease in June 2011 and moved in a month later. The three bedrooms in the back of the rental were used for office space and the front of the room was classroom space. Between the two homes, there were eight staff and eight students. Things started to go sour that fall when multiple trees in the Boudreaux’s backyard died as a result of the drought in 2011. “He was saying it was our fault,” said Abel. “We offered to pay for half the removal and we did even though we weren’t responsible.” Despite the fact that Boudreaux offered his fishing camp in Alvin for a school auction, there continued to be issues about house and yard maintenance. For instance, Boudreaux complained that the pool wasn’t being kept clean while Abel contended that it was dirty because the pool pump motor was broken. “That was his responsibility in the lease,” she said. “We continued to pay for pool service though.” Abel renewed the lease for the 20122013 year, but after that time decided to go month to month. Although there had been talk at the beginning of the agreement of Abel perhaps buying the house, and a right of first refusal was put in the lease, she said that it was clear to her that it wasn’t going to happen. “He didn’t want to sell to us.” She said that she decided to end the lease and vacated at the end of May 2014. That was when things really started to go downhill. “He demanded an additional month’s rent, saying we had an annual contract,” Abel said. “He threatened to sue, so we paid it under protest.” Abel maintains that after a formal walk through didn’t reveal any major issues, she was surprised to learn that she wasn’t going to get back her security deposit. That’s when she felt she had no choice but to get a lawyer herself. Later she received a letter from Boudreaux See Lawsuit, P. 4A


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