Northeast Houston residents demand information on city's drainage plan

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Unfortunately, flooding has become common for those living in southeast Texas.

After losing a lawsuit, Houston city officials have been ordered to put hundreds of millions of dollars toward fixing up streets and draining systems.

But, does the city have the money to do so?

Zoila Godinez and her nephew Fabian love living in the Lakewood neighborhood of northeast Houston.

What they don't love is the feeling they get when it rains.

"Frustrated, scared, and not knowing what might happen," Fabian translated for Zoila, who speaks mostly Spanish.

Zoila's home was destroyed during Hurricane Harvey.

"When she was trying to cross the street, it was up to her neck," Fabian described.

While there have been some improvements since Harvey, aging roads and debris-filled ditches remain.

"That starts to fill up first, and then you get an idea of how bad it's going to be," David Espinoza, a resident and a member of the northeast Action Collective, said.

The group surrounded City Hall Wednesday afternoon, demanding a plan from city officials.

In January, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the city violated its own ordinance by not putting enough of its property tax revenue toward drainage projects and ordered the city to set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to fix its neighborhoods.

On Wednesday, the city controller said the city doesn't have the money for it without cutting other services.

But the budget is due in just four months, and while officials have said they will comply with the court order, they haven't said how or specified where any cuts will come from.

With so many questions, uncertainty continues for these Lakewood residents.

"Maybe move out, but it's just hard to move from the community you've been living in for so long," Fabian said. "It's frustrating."

"A lot of immigrants from South and Central America settled here because it was the cheapest place you could live. The Black residents who live here, it was one of the few places that you were even allowed to live, so those are roots that they planted generations ago, and they want to make sure they can pass that on to the next one," Espinoza explained.

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