page_title: Gulfton, Houston
section_title: 1980-1992
hierarchical_section_title: Gulfton, Houston / History / 1980-1992
caption_attribution_description: English: Lantern Village Apartments
context_page_description: Gulfton is a community in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States that includes a 3.2 sq mi group of apartment complexes that primarily house refugee and immigrant populations. It is located between the 610 Loop and Beltway 8, west of the City of Bellaire, southeast of Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59, and north of Bellaire Boulevard.
  In the 1960s and 1970s Gulfton experienced rapid development, with new apartment complexes built for young individuals from the Northeast and Midwest United States. They came to work in the oil industry during the 1970s oil boom.
  In the 1980s, as the economy declined, existing tenants left, resulting in a significant drop in occupancy rates in the apartment complexes and forcing many complexes into bankruptcy and foreclosure. Owners marketed the empty units to newly arrived immigrants and Gulfton became a predominantly immigrant community. Beginning in the 1980s Gulfton's crime rate increased and schools were increasingly overwhelmed with excess students. "Houstonians" nicknamed the community the "Gulfton Ghetto."
context_section_description: In the mid-1980s the Houston-area oil industry economy declined and more than 200,000 jobs were lost from the local economy. Thousands of renters left causing a rise in apartment vacancies. Many apartment complexes throughout the Houston area experienced bankruptcy, foreclosure, and frequent turnover in ownership. Colonial House Apartments, which became known throughout the Houston area from advertisements featuring California promoter Michael Pollack, is an example as they faced foreclosure. DRG Funding, a mortgage lender headquartered in Washington, DC, took over the complex. On September 16, 1988 the Government National Mortgage Association took over Colonial House Apartments and other properties of DRG, after DRG fell behind on its mortgage. On Wednesday, May 11, 1989, the Colonial House Apartments were auctioned off to an out-of-state investment group for USD $8.9 million ($18.4 million in today's money) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development realized a $42 million ($86.6 million in today's money) loss. The following year Colonial House was renamed "Lantern Village."
  Marketing to an influx of immigrant workers, owners abandoned "adult only" policies (prohibiting children), listed vacancies in Spanish, and reduced rents. Despite the rent reduction, a July 17, 1988 Houston Chronicle article stated that rates for poorly maintained apartments in Gulfton and other Houston areas were comparable to well-maintained apartments in other parts of the city. According to Gaines, complexes in Gulfton began to cater to illegal immigrants and landlords allowed renters to "double-up" housing (several individuals and/or families living in a unit). John Goodner, a Houston city council member who represented a district that included Gulfton at that time, said that more demographic changes occurred within his district in the years leading up to 1988 than in any other part of the city. He was referring to the shift in the demographics of various apartment complexes. Goodner said that the complex owners were unconcerned about this development as long as the rent payments were made. Landlords had difficulty filling apartment complexes even if they did not require background checks. Many banks and lending institutions owned foreclosed apartments and failed to properly maintain them, considering it "pouring money down a perceived rat hole." Gaines added that many complexes deferred maintenance.
  Many of the new Gulfton residents found limited access to government services such as food stamps and municipal and county health care. By July 1989, the Gulfton area was designated by Houston's city council as a "Community Development Target." These provided low-income communities with increased city services supplemented with federal funding. This drew a response from the Houston Resident Citizens Participation Council (HRCPC), a citizen commission that monitored funding for low-income residents. Board members formally protested city council against diverting support funds from the "old poor" in existing low-income areas to the "new poor" in newly created communities. The HRCPC members argued that the original "Community Development Targets" were not fully served prior to the service areas expanding and budgets shrinking. The council had no authority to force any changes in public policy. Rose Mary Garza, then the principal of Cunningham Elementary School, stated that some government officials were reluctant to expand services to Gulfton as they believed the low-income apartments would be bulldozed. During his time city council member Goodner lobbied for a satellite health department clinic for apartment renters.
  Robert Fisher, professor and chair of Political Social Work at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Houston, and Lisa Taaffe, a project manager for Houston's "Communities in Schools," stated in "Public Life in Gulfton: Multiple Publics and Models of Organization," a 1997 article, that the development and decline of Gulfton originated from a, "purely short term, relatively spontaneous speculative process.
caption: The Lantern Village Apartments, formerly Colonial House Apartments, became well-known through television advertisements before experiencing bankruptcy, foreclosure, and a name change
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