The City of San Antonio has filed a lawsuit against the affordable housing nonprofit that owns the Westwood Plaza Apartments — a trouble-plagued apartment complex on the city’s West Side that had its water shut off by the San Antonio Water System earlier this summer — for not bringing its buildings up to code despite warnings.
The suit, filed in state District Court on Tuesday, names the California-based nonprofit Pico Union Housing Corporation and its local property manager Gloria Farias as defendants in the case. Pico Union owns five apartment complexes across the city’s West Side, which it purchased in March 2020. The suit names 95 code violations against the nonprofit’s San Antonio properties, including electrical hazards, infestations, broken air conditioners, fire damage and sewage leaks.
On Tuesday, Farias pleaded guilty in municipal court to four citations, including two violations at Westwood Plaza Apartments. As part of the plea agreement, Pico Union must pay an $8,000 fine. In return, the court dismissed eight citations against Farias.
In the lawsuit, the city is requesting that a judge declare Westwood Plaza Apartments a “public nuisance,” and that it relocate its tenants living at these apartments into safer buildings on the property while each building is fixed up to legal standards.
“Since the end of 2018 into 2019 and continuing to the present, the property has been a public nuisance…,” the suit states. “Defendants have continually and knowingly maintained a place which poses a substantial threat to persons or property.”
It is noted in the lawsuit that the property’s issues pre-date Pico Union’s ownership, however, it adds that the “Defendants have shown a clear lack of cooperation and responsibility to those under their charge as well as the greater City of San Antonio community with failed promises to act.”
The city has had multiple discussions with Farias and other Pico Union staff members in recent months, Deputy City Attorney Joe Niño told the San Antonio Report on Friday. Niño said despite these warnings, the city has seen little change at the complex.
“It got to the point that, for now, we’re going to have to ask the court to declare the property a public nuisance due to the code violations,” he said. “…We had no other choice but to file the suit to get the court to order this.”
Farias responds
Farias, who herself lives at the Westwood Plaza Apartments, tearfully told the San Antonio Report on Friday that she and the nonprofit have been trying to improve the complex, but said that they’ve hit issue after issue starting with the pandemic and eviction moratorium. Since then, Farias said only about half of the tenants pay rent, and the area has experienced an influx of crime.
“We are running out of money, and instead of the city coming to the table and saying, ‘How can we help?’ they’re just running with these lawsuits,” she said.
A deep dive into Pico Union’s finances by the San Antonio Report earlier this year showed that indeed, the corporation has been in the red since purchasing the five San Antonio properties, averaging a net loss of about $4 million per year since then.
In July, Farias told the Report that the nonprofit has put in $20 million of Pico Union’s money into the San Antonio properties to keep them afloat since 2020. Her biggest concern is the properties being bought out by a for-profit company that will hike up the rent rates, she said.
“If they don’t want Pico Union involved, I don’t have a problem with that — but they need to find another nonprofit or something where they can save the affordability of this place,” she said on Friday.
She added that she did not feel it was fair that she was asked to plead guilty to four violations within municipal court to be released from eight other counts.
“It demoralizes me more, it makes me … have anxiety, instead of taking care of what I need to take care of,” she said.
Trust
On June 18, SAWS made the rare decision to cut off water service to four apartment complexes across the city, including two properties owned by Pico Union — the 306-unit Westwood Plaza, as well as the nearby 44-unit Roselawn Apartments.
At the time of the water shutoffs, Pico Union owed $144,092.32 in utility payments for Westwood Plaza Apartments according to data released by SAWS, and $98,916.74 for Roselawn Apartments, located near Lackland Air Force Base.
Despite being without tap water for the day, residents at Westwood Plaza Apartments defended Farias, saying the complex had somewhat improved since she took over in 2020. The complexes were previously owned by Terravista Partners.
Since June, the city council has made moves to try to protect residents of apartment complexes from being disconnected from their utilities should a landlord or property manager fail to pay a utility bill on time. The water utility has not had to shut off the property again thus far.
The lawsuit filed against the nonprofit and Farias on Tuesday seeks for a judge to require the property owners to create a trust account “for SAWS and CPS [Energy] payments from monies collected from rent monthly,” and to “Notify prospective buyers or purchasers of the terms of injunction which shall transfer to any new ownership or management.”
“The broker that we put up for sale with, they want to give us $30 million — but our mortgage is $48 million, so … we’d have to sell some of our property in Los Angeles to make up the difference,” she said. “That’s where I’m at.” Foreclosure is a real possibility for the complex, she added.
Niño reiterated on Friday that the lawsuit is a matter of public safety for the tenants living in the properties managed by Pico Union.
“The citizens pay good money to live in a safe place,” he said. “The outcome is easy. What we’re asking is that all the issues get corrected.”
