In 2015, local environmental activists achieved quite a victory, acquiring $2 million from a donor to buy out and relocate families from the polluted neighborhood known as Dona Park. They thought they had enough money to remedy the living situations of a dozen families and turn the former homes into a buffer between people and industry. They outdid their expectations, helping 15 families move into new homes a safe distance away.
Assuming no overhead — and who would assume such a thing these days? — that comes out to a little more than $133,000 per house and family. Suzie Canales, the longtime relentless advocate for Dona Park residents and the person most answerable for how the money was spent, says $133,000 “sounds like a lot” until the expense of buying and removing a house and relocating the family is considered.
Actually, Ms. Canales, our real estate ads and anyone who has bought and sold homes lately on the Southside all say that you did just fine by those folks. Also, we checked with people who know more than a little about public accounting, and they said your numbers sound like money well spent. Then they went back to the work that keeps them crazy-busy this time of year — completing income tax returns for clients who can’t remember what it’s like to be worth less than $2 million.
The fund established with the money was not meant to last forever like a scholarship fund that spends only some of its profits once a year from investments. This fund was meant to be spent — wisely, but spent.
About that overhead: The big-ticket item, if it’s to be called that, was lawyer Errol Summerlin’s consulting work for more than a year and a half, for $26,170. That averages out to about six hours of lawyer time per family at the $300 per hour that the Corpus Christi City Council is paying a lawyer to consult on Mark Scott’s eligibility to run for mayor. We wouldn’t be surprised to find out in a final analysis that Summerlin’s work bordered on volunteerism.
And we fully expect to find out, eventually. The numbers we’re going on are just an overview. The details must be dug into to make sure that the devil in them is just a cliche. We anticipate finding out those details. Speaking of cliches, if this is as good a deed as it appears to be, it can’t go wholly unpunished. A thorough going-over will be good for the soul. It also might serve as a useful benchmark for the buyouts underway currently in the path of the Harbor Bridge replacement project.
There was an unmistakable apologetic tone to Canales’ announcement that the fund had run out. While 15 relocated families are three more than expected, the fund received 75 applications.
Canales told the Caller-Times that previous buyout efforts along refinery row didn’t offer enough for residents to leave with dignity. Not this time. If a price can be put on dignity in the narrow sense of real estate, and that price is $133,000, dignity is more affordable than we suspected.
