Senior living communities didn’t have an emergency plan during a power outage

Since the power went out Thursday night because of the devastating storm that hit Houston, Brian Cotten has been living on water and peanut butter sandwiches in his stuffy apartment at a Heights senior living center.

“We tried to help each other as best we could,” said Cotten, who lives with 230 residents in the Houston Heights Towers on 19th Street and is president of the community’s residents’ council.

For two days, no one in the town knew of the residents’ fate. Cotten worried about his neighbors, many of whom are on oxygen or in wheelchairs. The building’s owner, the nonprofit Housing Corporation, had few employees available during the outage.

Cotten finally called the city’s emergency management office Saturday to ask for help. Councilwoman Abbie Kamin said she was alarmed by what she saw when she arrived at the facility later that day.

“I pulled over and an ambulance was already there because someone had overheated,” said Kamin, who believes the owner should have done more to make sure residents had what they needed during the power outage. running in Houston.

Messages left for leaders of the nonprofit organization were not returned Sunday. The Housing Corporation owns seven independent living communities in the Houston area, including the nearby Heights Towers and Heights House, which also lost power.

None of the Housing Corporation properties in Houston are licensed or supervised by the State of Texas to provide elder care. Unlike nursing homes and other assisted living facilities that provide higher levels of care, Texas does not require independent living facilities to maintain licensure and are not inspected by the state.

Kamin, Cotten and other residents were quick to praise the owner’s maintenance workers who live on site and worked long hours repairing the wind-damaged building.

“We did the best we could with what we had,” said maintenance worker Joel Torres, who said his manager brought in generators to power the elevators and some electrical outlets in the lobby.

“What is your emergency response?” »

Kamin said she was primarily concerned about what appears to be a lack of emergency planning for nonprofit senior living communities in the Heights, which provide housing for hundreds of low-income residents.

The board member contacted the nonprofit’s vice president and chief operating officer, Linda Holder, and was not satisfied with her responses.

“I asked, ‘What is your emergency response (plan)?’ “, Kamin remembers. The answer: “We don’t have any.” » A message with Holder was not returned Sunday.

“I said, ‘We’re going to focus on getting what you need right now. But we will have very serious conversations after this,” Kamin said. “They continue to claim this is an ‘independent living facility.’ I believe most of these residents are in wheelchairs or amputees. There are individuals who are blind.

The fire department had to be called Saturday evening when a generator stopped working and a resident became trapped in an elevator.

“We had, at one point, four or five ladder trucks here,” said Kamin, who toured the facility with Fire Chief Samuel Peña.

Power restored to Houston Heights towers

A local church helped residents by providing cold cuts and food to those in need. The city provided pallets of bottled water Saturday and coordinated with volunteers from CrowdSource Rescue to provide hot meals.

Around 11 a.m. Sunday, full power was finally restored to the tower, alleviating many problems. Residents gathered in the air-conditioned lobby for lunch, and some said they had no complaints about the owner.

Others were frustrated.

“It was a total disaster,” resident Keith Hobbs said. “People were afraid of being hungry. »

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