This story has been updated.
Residents in more than 600 apartment units were left without water for several hours Tuesday after the San Antonio Water System shut off services at four complexes.
The rare move followed what the municipal water utility said was months of trying to negotiate with property managers on unpaid water bills.
On Tuesday morning, the utility shut off water services to the Roselawn Apartments, Westwood Plaza Apartments, Serenity Residences and several other independent units located at 410 West Magnolia Avenue. Services were restored to all the units except a few by the close of business Tuesday, SAWS Communications Director Anne Hayden said.
“With these businesses especially, we try to keep providing service since it affects the tenants — who are innocent — more than the owner,” she said.
According to records, both the Roselawn Apartments and Westwood Plaza Apartments are owned by the same company, the Los Angeles-based non-profit Pico Union Housing Corp., which bought a small portfolio of multifamily properties in San Antonio in 2020 from the troubled Terravista Partners.
As of Tuesday morning, the company owed SAWS more than $241,000 for the two properties, according to records provided by the utility. Serenity Residences, owned by Patrick Duke, and the Magnolia Avenue properties owed SAWS roughly $50,000 and $10,000 respectively, SAWS’ records show.
Without water
Just after 1 p.m. Tuesday, residents living at the Westwood Plaza Apartments located on the city’s Southwest side milled about in front of the complex’s front office.
City employees from San Antonio’s Human Services Department handed out cases of water bottles and free lunches to the residents under the shade of a small pavilion.
Resident Brenda Olguin was trailed by her four small children as she picked up a case of water and walked the short distance back to her second-story apartment.
Olguin said she and her family have lived at the complex for about seven months, and Tuesday’s outage made cooking and cleaning difficult.
On her stovetop sat a collection of pink pots and pans still holding the family’s breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Used dishes sat in her sink, where she’d been working when the water had been cut off.
“I hope they turn the water back on soon because I don’t like this,” Olguin said as she cracked open 10 of the 64 water bottles out of the two cases she had been given to rinse her dishes.
Olguin said she and her husband’s bills are all paid so it seems unfair their water service was cut when they make sure to pay their bills.
Drawing a line
Over at Serenity Residences on the Northwest side, residents and office staff reported having running water as of 2 p.m. Tuesday.
An office staffer who declined to give their name said Serenity Residences acquired the property from a company that had a standing delinquent account with SAWS. Serenity “had an agreement” with the city, but there was a “misunderstanding” in communication with the city, the staffer said.
“We’ve paid the bill. The water is on and there is no problem with SAWS. We’re current on the bill,” they said.
Duke told the San Antonio Report there was a “miscommunication” with SAWS and he’d made a payment Tuesday morning — a claim SAWS disputes.
“This is the problem we’ve been having,” Hayden said. “He keeps saying he made it but won’t provide a receipt. He keeps playing games and misrepresenting information.”
Hayden added that the property managers on SAWS’ list have been repeatedly delinquent or have paid amounts less than what their payment plans regulate they should.
“If this were due to tenants being late, they would have evicted them,” she said. “It’s hard to pin down the individual landlords. As a result, we finally had to take this action and draw the line.”
Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) said she doesn’t agree with SAWS’ action, adding that residents should not be punished for the landlord’s lack of response.
“I would have preferred to have seen SAWS take another route that would not impact residents, but instead focus on holding irresponsible landlords accountable,” she said. “The actions of SAWS lack compassion for our tenants who are unable to defend themselves in cases like these.”
The councilwoman added that SAWS' execution of simultaneous disconnections across the city overwhelmed city departments that were aiding these apartment complexes.
“Staggering the disconnections would have allowed the city departments to help each apartment complex on a case-by-case basis,” she said. “Instead, the city’s capacity to rectify this situation [was] spread out between the remaining complexes that [had] not yet made payments.”
Breaking news reporter Raquel Torres contributed to this report.
