The San Benito Housing Authority began the demolition of the Bonham Street home shown (above) on Monday. (Staff photos by Michael Rodriguez)
By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Special to the NEWS
It was finally time to bring down the house.
The San Benito Housing Authority (SBHA) has begun the demolition of a dilapidated home on Bonham Street after being reported to the City of San Benito months ago.
As previously reported by the News, the house had been an eyesore to neighbors in the area for a long time with reports of rodents in and around the house as well as a cactus growing on the roof, which was visible from the street.
According to SBHS Executive Director Arnold Padilla, the project to demolish and rebuild such houses has been a long time coming. Funded through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA), the funds were applied for just over a year and a half ago.
“It’s been a tedious program to run, but in total the housing authority was awarded about $500,000,” said Padilla on Monday as he observed the demolition of the Bonham Street home. “These funds have been used to purchase one repossessed home, which we have already repaired and are getting ready to place out for sale in the market.”
The house is one of five to either be torn down with new homes built on the property or simply refurbished.
There is one on Milam Street, and another one on Reagan Street. What this program allows us to do is buy either foreclosed or dilapidated structures. If it’s a foreclosed home or repossessed home, we’re able to refurbish it and put it back on the market,” Padilla explained. “If it’s a dilapidated property, we purchase the property, we demolish the home, and then we build a new home on site. Once the new homes are built, they will also be marketed to the community.”
These homes will be available for purchase to any family in or outside the community, but the family must be of 120 percent median household income or less, which, according to Padilla, would be about 80 percent of the community.
When asked about the delay in having the houses demolished and/or refurbished, Padilla said, “The state of Texas is managing the funds, and the state of Texas actually granted the money before it had developed all of the rules. There’s been an enormous amount of changes within the program through the state. It’s taken us almost from October of last year up to now to finally get the approval to start utilizing the funds. Even though the housing authority first purchased the homes under our name, those homes were not actually refunded to us until about a week ago.”
Padilla continued, “It’s been a lengthy process, one that I’m sure the neighbors have wanted these homes to go down and we also wanted to go down, but we were finally given a notice to proceed last Tuesday. Once we received the notice to proceed, we immediately got after it.”
Meanwhile, Padilla said a contractor has already been procured to rebuild a new home where the Bonham Street house once stood.
“We estimate that on this particular house on Bonham, the construction will probably commence within the next couple of weeks,” Padilla said.
The housing authority will be taking applications from families interested in any of the renovated homes and who meet the said requirements. For more information, call (956) 399-7501.
To see this story in print, pick up a copy of the Aug. 3 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.
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