Vacant Forest Green townhomes in northeast Houston move toward sale after Harvey

Weeds are pushing through the vacant Forest Green Townhomes site in northeast Houston, where no residents have lived for years, a security guard watches the perimeter and no-trespassing signs still mark a property that has sat in limbo since Hurricane Harvey.

The 100-unit complex at 8945 Forest Hollow Drive was once part of a 28-property portfolio owned by the Houston Housing Authority, now Housing Alliance HTX, and it served low-income residents, older adults and people with disabilities before the storm. Harvey forced more than 80 percent of the townhomes to be vacated, and the agency said 84 families were affected at Forest Green alone. Across seven HHA properties, more than 950 families were hit by major damage.

At the time, the authority relied on vouchers and help from the Oklahoma City Housing Authority because there were not enough local replacement units to move everyone. Nearly a decade later, the site has still not returned to active use, even as the rest of northeast Houston has continued to rebuild around it.

Housing Alliance HTX now says the property is under contract for sale, with closing expected late next month. The agency has said earlier plans to rehabilitate Forest Green were not feasible because of the site’s flooding history, a judgment that reflects the difficult tradeoff facing Houston neighborhoods built around repeated flood risk: keep a damaged property empty, or replace it with something that can better withstand the next major storm.

A preliminary drainage investigation by Gradient Group LLC, which was selected by HHA for civil and site engineering work, pointed toward demolition and replacement. The firm said it concluded that tearing down the existing complex and building a new development, including an administration building, would be in the best interest of residents and the housing authority. Its post said HHA asked the firm to identify flood-mitigation requirements and consider keeping detention on-site by demolishing the current layout.

The money once tied to rehabilitation was later shifted to replacement units through Independence Heights II, a separate affordable housing project now under construction at 222 Crosstimbers Street. That 221-unit development will include 131 units with HUD project-based vouchers, 81 units restricted by low-income housing tax credit rules and nine market-rate units.

The Forest Green sale comes as Harris County continues to reckon with Harvey not as a single disaster, but as a long recovery that has reshaped how officials think about blight, drainage and where families can safely live next. A long-empty tract in northeast Houston may finally move from reminder to redevelopment.