Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers after midnight. Low near 50F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers after midnight. Low near 50F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Updated: January 30, 2023 @ 5:31 pm
GALVESTON
A Texas housing advocacy group and numerous national groups sent a letter this week to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asking for a formal investigation into Millennia Housing Management, which previously owned troubled Galveston complex Sandpiper Cove.
The Ohio-based company has vehemently denied the letter’s accusations that it allowed tenants at its various properties across the country to live in substandard and unsafe conditions.
Tenants of Sandpiper Cove, 3916 Winnie St., have complained for years about mold, leaks, pests, safety issues and other unhealthy living conditions at the property.
Millennia bought Sandpiper Cove in 2015 and sold it last year at the command of the federal government to developers ITEX Group and Jeshurun Development, which last month began a major renovation.
Sandpiper Cove is one of six properties across the country noted in the letter.
“Millennia has a policy and practice of under-resourcing properties and failing to correct terrible conditions that affect residents for many years,” according to the letter.
Advocacy group Texas Housers and more than 20 other organizations around the country, including the National Low-Income Housing Coalition and National Housing Law Project, issued the letter.
The federal department released a brief statement that it was in receipt of the letter and had no updates.
Millennia released a six-page rebuttal of the letter, denying the accusations.
The company said its average score for federal inspections is 84, when 60 is passing.
“If an apartment community receives a low score, a corrective action plan is created and executed to meet HUD requirements,” according to the letter.
Sandpiper Cove is unusual because it operates with site-based housing vouchers. Unlike Housing Choice Vouchers, the federal housing assistance for residents at the complex is tied to the property. If residents leave, they’ll likely lose their vouchers.
The housing advocates sent the letter because of how many properties Millennia owns, said David Wheaton, advocacy director for Texas Housers.
“The properties that they’re developing and the properties that they’re maintaining are being left in squalor,” Wheaton said.
The letter requested a response from the federal government within 30 days.
Keri Heath: 409-683-5241; keri.heath@galvnews.com or on Twitter @HeathKeri.
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