SAHA Residents Speak Out After Winter Storm
March 30, 2021 - San Antonio
Local activists, organizers and SAHA residents speak during a press conference on Saturday, March 20, 2021. Residents said they were given very little to no assistance during the winter storms which paralyzed the city in late February. Photos: B. Kay Richter.
By: Ricardo Delgado - Staff Intern, San Antonio Sentinel
Gathering outside the Fair Avenue Apartments on the city’s Southeast side, protestors railed against government and housing officials for leaving elderly and disadvantaged citizens alone in the cold during the blackouts caused by the winter storm last month.
During the early morning hours on Saturday, March 20 several residents and volunteers spoke about their experiences suffering or helping others in the cold, but the most prominent among them was Queta Rodriguez, a local activist and former Marine. Rodriguez, who assisted in evacuating residents of Fair Avenue complex, harped on the San Antonio Housing Authority’s (SAHA) inaction for the majority of the storm, leaving vulnerable residents to wait for either the power or assistance to arrive.
“We don’t leave the people on the battlefield to die, but the people here were,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says SAHA had ample time to respond to the imminent danger a winter storm poses and were dangerously late in checking in on residents who needed power to operate life-saving machines for oxygen, dialysis and more.
Thanking the efforts of the volunteers who helped move residents from Fair Avenue and other SAHA properties, which were also without power and lacked sufficient food and water during the storm, Rodriguez demanded accountability from elected officials, many of whom she thinks may have been silent out of fear of political blowback.
“How dare anybody make the suffering of human beings political?” Rodriguez said. “No one who has been vocal on this is on a ballot.”
"We want complete transparency, and we want people to be held accountable. Now we want to know what the plan is moving forward to make sure that this never happens again. This better never happen again to our citizens, to our community members, to our tías, our abuelitas, our abuelitos, to anybody really.” - Queta Rodriguez
Queta Rodriguez stands speaking in front of other organizers in a press conference for SAHA residents. Residents said they were given very little or no assistance during the winter storm in February 2021. Photo: B. Kay Richter.
Rodriguez adds warming centers were not established until Feb.16, but the information about them or any other form of assistance was not made accessible to those without power. She says many were without television, phone battery charge or internet, so a voice on the ground was needed, but did not arrive promptly. She also said the claims from SAHA they went door-to-door to collect residents for evacuation are false.
SAHA went door-to-door the following day, according to Rodriguez, on the “last day of the cold front,” finally establishing a consistent presence in the area to assist those still left behind.
“People need to understand that what's being told now [by elected officials and SAHA] is damage control,” Rodriguez says.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col and.National Commander of the American GI Forum Lawrence Romo pointed out Julián Castro, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, warned local housing authorities in 2016 and asked for plans to be put in place for emergency preparedness. Romo said SAHA seemingly had no plan in place, their website barren in regards to information for emergencies like these.
“A catastrophic incident or attack will occur with little or no warning, but in this case, we had a lot of warnings,” Romo said.
Romo wants more training and “frequent and diverse seminars ”for staff and residents to “reduce the fear of the unknown”, especially to assist communication with residents with disabilities and those who are not proficient in English.
Mary Ann Villegas, a resident of the Lewis Chatham apartments, said there should have been more generators in place given the size of her building. Villegas recounted days of isolation in freezing temperatures, including residents falling down stairs. She also said no one from the office came to assist residents, only a maintenance worker.
Rodriguez thanked the residents and volunteers who provided the assistance government entities failed to provide.
“We want an independent review,” Rodriguez said. “We want complete transparency, and we want people to be held accountable. Now we want to know what the plan is moving forward to make sure that this never happens again. This better never happen again to our citizens, to our community members, to our tías, our abuelitas, our abuelitos, to anybody really.”
Ricardo Delgado transferred to Texas State University at San Marcos to study journalism and minor in political science. He expects to graduate in the spring of 2021. Email him at reporter@sasentinel.com