Name: Fort Bend Rep. Gary Gates evicted more than 100 tenants during the pandemic
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Fort Bend Rep. Gary Gates evicted more than 100 tenants during the pandemic

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThroughout the coronavirus pandemic, state Rep. Gary Gates has worked hard to let constituents in Fort Bend County know he is there for them in a moment of crisis.The freshman lawmaker, a Republican who won a hotly contested runoff election in January and is on the ballot again this fall, began buying up hand sanitizer and protective gear and handing them out at high schools and through home deliveries. To date, he says he’s distributed about 15,000 kits across the district, all of them paid for out of his own pocket.But as the November election nears and the economic fallout from the pandemic deepens, Gates has played another, less visible role for some of those hardest hit: evicting tenants from his local empire of low-income housing.Since the governor issued a disaster declaration in mid-March, Gates has filed at least 104 evictions across 34 apartment complexes in and around Houston, according to an analysis of eviction records by Hearst Newspapers. Nearly three-fourths of those have ended in judgments against tenants, meaning they were likely evicted.None of the filings appear to have violated tenant protections in place through August under the CARES Act, and Gates said his staff has stopped filing evictions since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a new federal moratorium earlier this month.FEDERAL EVICTION BAN:Gates said he’s tried to work with tenants to avoid displacing them — or at least to minimize the damage when they do. His company has offered payment plans to some, and paid a handful of others to move out quickly, a practice meant to skirt the eviction process called “cash for keys.”“We bend over backwards to do everything we can, because look, it doesn’t do me any good to have a vacant apartment,” Gates said.The 61-year-old owns 34 apartment complexes in Harris County, six of which appear to have been protected by the CARES Act, which the federal government passed early in the pandemic as a way to help offset layoffs and keep tenants in their homes. The legislation, though, only applied to a fraction of properties nationwide, including those with federally backed mortgages or supported with low-income housing subsidies.More than half of Houston’s residents are renters, and the city has funneled millions since the pandemic began into housing assistance. But unlike in other Democratic-led big cities, Mayor Sylvester Turner declined to back an eviction grace period, saying he worried it would leave tenants more financially burdened in the end.Since March, landlords in Harris County have filed more than 10,000 evictions, most of them after a statewide moratorium ended in May, according to a database created by January Advisors. That’s a drop from previous months, but tenant advocates say Harris County already has higher-than-normal eviction rates.“It’s just become easier and easier for landlords to pursue eviction than other options,” said Jon Ross Trevino, a lawyer with Lone Star Legal Aid.EXPLAINED:Evictions at Gates’s complexes appear to be down overall. He filed 310 evictions in Harris County in the 12 months before the pandemic, compared to the 104 over the past six months. Like other landlords, though, he said they will likely pick up when the year ends and the federal moratorium is lifted, since Congress is deadlocked on a second round of federal aid.“There are people who haven’t paid anything since March, and now it’s going to be all the way through December,” Gates said. “How is someone going to catch up on nine months of rent? It’ll never happen.”Owners of privately-funded complexes have often justified the recent evictions by pointing to their own mortgage obligations, though some lenders have offered to defer payments during the health crisis. Gates said he declined to take advantage of those deferrals, also known as forbearance, because the payments will still be due later on.But the evictions set up a delicate balancing act for Gates as he heads into November. The Republican won the district handily in January, but the race is anticipated to be closer in the general election, given higher turnout and the impact the pandemic and presidential politics has had on voters in recent months. The district is one of more than a dozen that Democrats have targeted as they try to reclaim control of the state House.Gates has made a fortune from his real estate empire, most of it centered in low-income neighborhoods. Today, six of his children work in the family business and together they oversee 500 employees and 8,400 apartment units. A majority of those units are occupied by families and people of color, Gates said.Gates has used that fortune to fund several political campaigns, and has deployed it in recent months to provide pandemic assistance that could help boost his image among potential voters. Meanwhile, he has moved to evict dozens of tenants, often over a few thousand dollars in unpaid rent.In the past, Gates has weathered allegations from political opponents that he preys on low-income tenants and has failed to provide adequate living standards for some. He denies the accusations and said instead that he’s worked to create and rehabilitate affordable housing for thousands of hard-working Texans.“Too many investors buy these properties, slap up some paint and then fill them with people who are unqualified,” he said. “Sure, it makes a profit short term and maybe they can sell for a quick profit. But long term it destroys communities. I’m not that kind of owner.”

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThroughout the coronavirus pandemic, state Rep. Gary Gates has worked hard to let constituents in Fort Bend County know he is there for them in a moment of crisis.The freshman lawmaker, a Republican who won a hotly contested runoff election in January and is on the ballot again this fall, began buying up hand sanitizer and protective gear and handing them out at high schools and through home deliveries. To date, he says he’s distributed about 15,000 kits across the district, all of them paid for out of his own pocket.But as the...

Fort Bend Rep. Gary Gates evicted more than 100 tenants during the pandemic

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