Historic Oaks of Allen Parkway Village, formerly Allen Parkway Village (APV) and San Felipe Courts Apartments, is a public housing complex in the northern Fourth Ward, Houston, Texas, operated by the Houston Housing Authority (HHA). Allen Parkway Village occupies of land.
At one time the headquarters of the HHA, previously known as the Housing Authority of the City of Houston (HACH), were at APV. In 1988 it was the largest HACH facility.
History
Opening and initial history
The construction of Allen Parkway Village, originally known as San Felipe Courts Apartments, was completed in 1944, with 963 units built. A group of architectural firms with MacKie & Kamrath being the leader completed the facility. As part of the development process, about 900 bodies were moved from the former New City Cemetery, a cemetery that was operated beginning in 1880 and ending in 1920, to Brookside Cemetery. However the effort missed around 355 bodies.
Allen Parkway Village, which was built over the site of a former red light district, "The Reservation", was designed to beautify Allen Parkway. It was originally reserved for White people. Mike Snyder of the Houston Chronicle said that local historians indicated the development of the complex as a factor that lead to the decline of the Fourth Ward. It was renamed "Allen Parkway Village" in 1964. In 1968 African-Americans were permitted to move to APV.
Circa 1976 most of the residents were African-Americans who wished to be near Downtown Houston and the Fourth Ward, and the occupancy rate was over 95%. Brian Wallstin of the Houston Press stated that at the time APV "was considered the best of the city's public housing complexes."
In December 1984 about 2,000 people lived in APV, which was almost 50% of the total number of people residing in HACH properties.
Demolition struggle
Starting in the 1970s the HACH wanted to demolish Allen Parkway Village while residents fought to have the entire structure remain. In 1977 Robert Wood, the director of the Housing Authority of the City of Houston, wrote a letter proposing that Allen Parkway Village be demolished. In 1979 the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) authorized $10 million for modernizing APV, but HACH only spent below $50,000 for this purpose, and instead left around 500 units vacant. The city officials had proposed building other low income housing elsewhere in the city. Public housing officials and private developers were in favor of demolishing the housing, while preservationists and residents were in favor of keeping the housing. The private developers hoped to have higher income housing and commercial use. The HACH, during this time, moved its headquarters into a building in River Oaks. Jim Sherman of the Houston Press stated in 1993 that in addition to the practical desire for redevelopment, much of the impetus was a determination of the politically connected to get the complex demolished after initially running into roadblocks against the goal. Sherman stated that the population loss and decline of APV were "by design".
HACH officials asserted that the agency filed the first demolition permit in 1984. According to press reports, HACH had sent secret requests for razing the complex in 1977, which employees of the federal housing authority at the time disapproved of, and in 1981.
Beginning in the 1970s thousands of Vietnamese refugees moved to Allen Parkway Village, along with those from Cambodia. HACH had deliberately placed them there, according to Wallstin, "in an attempt to pave the political pitfalls to its then-secret demolition plans". A report prepared for HACH stated the agency's belief that the Asians would, compared to other racial groups, not put up as much resistance to agency moves to eliminate APV. The existence of the report was later revealed by lawyers representing ethnic Vietnamese clients. At APV Asians encountered crime and tensions with existing black residents. Some families doubled up, sharing the same apartment units.