13 Investigates 'poor' rentals as Houston sees freezing temperatures

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Feast Bennemie used duct tape to seal off his backdoor and try to keep cold air from entering the home he's renting in the Fifth Ward with his wife, Sheila.

The home doesn't have central heat, and there are rugs across the floor, covering cracks in an effort to keep cold air from coming inside as Houston sees freezing temperatures this week.

"The walls don't have no insulation in it, in no kind of way, and they got a crack right there (on the wall). You can feel the air coming from it," 80-year-old Bennemie said.

13 Investigates used a thermometer to measure the temperature inside their home. It was 60 degrees inside the bedroom, despite two portable heaters.

Using a laser thermometer, we measured the temperature of their living room floor, which was in the low 40s.

This winter isn't the first time the couple has been forced to find ways to cope with extreme weather.

We spoke with the Bennemies last summer when the extreme heat caused the bathroom of the home they're renting to reach an indoor "feels-like" temperature of 109 degrees due to a lack of air conditioning and a small hole in the ceiling.

When we asked Feast Bennemie on Tuesday if summer or winter is more brutal, he said, "Both, because one gets cold and the other one you get so hot."

SEE ALSO: 13 Investigates: Couple 'miserable' as heat index reaches 109 inside their home

There are no entities in Houston that regularly inspect the inside of rental homes. But, when it comes to the exterior, one in every six Harris County rental structures was rated "below average" by the Harris Central Appraisal District in 2021, according to the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research's "2023 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston."

"A lot of what we think of the quality of the home or its condition really depends on what's going on inside of the walls," Dr. Steven Sherman, a Rice University research scientist and author of the study, said. "(The rating) doesn't tell us, for example, about the heating or HVAC systems. It doesn't tell us about ventilation, plumbing. It's based upon somebody's exterior assessment of the house."

The home the Bennemies rent received a D-minus rating. There were 60,220 rental structures that received a below-average rating of "D" (low), "E" (very low) or "F" (poor), according to the study.

Bennemie's wife was bundled up in their bedroom and in bed sick when we visited on Tuesday.

The couple doesn't have a heater in their living room, but with the kitchen in the room next door, they warmed it up by turning on all four stove top burners and the oven in the adjacent kitchen.

"I've been real cold in here," Bennemie said. "If it doesn't freeze too hard, I can make it in here with the little heat that comes from the stove."

Bennemie said he recently did some repairs to the home himself, and his landlord lowered his rent from $750 to $600 a month since the last time we spoke with him.

13 Investigates spoke with the Bennemies' landlord on the phone on Tuesday. He told us since purchasing the home in 2017, he has done work to bring it up to "livable" standards.

The landlord said his home is cold, too, but when we asked him if he has central heat, he said he does.

Meanwhile, Bennemie told us during the evening that the couple will have to decide if they want to stay in their home tonight in the freezing temperatures or find a ride to one of the city's warming centers.

Sherman said a recent survey by the Kinder Institute found after public safety, affordable housing was the next biggest concern for residents.

"Sixty percent of the city is renters. Soon a majority of Harris County households are going to be renters, too, so these issues, they affect this community. These are citywide concerns, questions about tenant-landlord relationships (and) building quality," Sherman said. "I think, it seems like there are some very serious livability concerns here if they're needing to use their oven to stay warm."

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