Hester House is an emotion for Fifth Ward residents. From children to seniors, everyone finds a place for themselves here.
Since 1941, Hester House has served as a settlement house for the neighborhood’s African-American community. But now, its future hangs in the balance, leaving hundreds of residents panicking.
The community expected its questions to be answered during a town hall meeting organized by the Hester House board of directors and the county. The leaders included Precinct One Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Hester House board member State Rep. Harold Dutton.
“Anytime you are making changes, people have to adjust to it,” Ellis said to the Defender. “At the end of the day, the finances and the law are what they are, and we’ll have to comply with the law. So it means that we cannot do capital expenditures at the Hester house.”
Ellis added that the county and the board put together a plan to “protect” the center with financial stability.
Joetta Stevenson, the president of the Greater Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood #55, summarized community members’ concerns—the anxieties of the beloved community center being taken over by a government entity.
“That has normally not, rarely worked in a positive light for communities like ours. Rarely,” Stevenson said. “So it looks more like a hijacking … When I give information through whispers of innuendo and rumors, then I have an issue with that. Because you all failed to even include any kind of communication with the community.”
She said residents were unaware of such a decision by a “mysterious board.” Several people also missed the meeting due to a lack of communication and transportation.
“I have no idea who even sits on the board,” Stevenson said. “I’m kind of allergic to boards and commissions no matter what governmental entity is over them because they normally aren’t very good for the entities that they’re impacting.”
Context
Ellis announced that Hester House was donated to the county at the request of the Hester House Board of Directors, which voted 4-2 in favor of the donation and accepted by the Harris County Commissioners Court.
The resolution is yet to be signed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Assistant County Attorney Raychel Johnson.
Currently, Hester House maintains five bank accounts with a balance of approximately $3.4 million.
The board said that to align resources with the center’s operational needs, “it is in the best interest of the Hester House to donate the real property together with improvements, and the totality of the funds” remaining in the bank accounts to the county.
The board’s resolution included a provision for its right to regain ownership of the Hester House via a “reverter clause” if Harris County fails to maintain and provide services to the community.
“I don’t want you to think in any way, Rodney Ellis or the county is pushing this on the board,” Ellis said at the town hall meeting. “If they [board] don’t want to do it, don’t do it. I’m trying to find a way, regardless of who is in this city, regardless of what Fifth Ward looks like, even with changing demographics, we have to accept that and make sure that we are understanding and appreciating people in need, whoever they are.”
While board chairman Jeremy Brown, and members Valerie Jackson, Jamaal Smith and Dr. DoVeanna S. Fulton signed the resolution, members Lester Byrd Jr. and Rep. Dutton did not.
Dutton said he waited until community members expressed their concerns.
“Because whatever happens, it’s going to impact the people sitting here and lots of the people who are here are gonna be impacted as well,” Dutton said. “I know that the county funds nonprofits, but I also know that the county is the government. The government sometimes decides to do away with things and cut back on things…those are the things that we have to pay attention to because I think at the end of the day, it’s not about us, it’s about our children’s children’s children.”
The Timeline
The relationship between Harris County and Hester House goes back some years. In 2012, Commissioner El Franco Lee agreed to support the center using county funds.
Before Lee, United Way provided about 75% of the funding for Hester House.
In 2016, Ellis was elected to serve on the Commissioners Court and “committed” to supporting Hester House financially with more than a million dollars in support each year, which covers up to 90% of the center’s operating costs and staff salaries per Ellis’ office.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve got it up as high as $1.4 million a year,” Ellis said.
Ellis’ office also said Menefee expressed “serious concerns” about the legality of this arrangement, in which Ellis’ office provides 90% of the funding for Hester House outside the procurement process, along with facilities the county does not own.
The future, too, is uncertain as future commissioners may choose to withdraw funding. Per Ellis, state policies “increasingly target programs supporting diversity, equity and inclusion as well as county efforts to empower communities like the Fifth Ward.”
What the community said
An elderly resident, Delores McGruder, who has lived in Fifth Ward for more than 80 years, suggested that the best way to get in touch with “her” community was through flyers, home visits and in neighborhood grocery stores. She explained that the mistrust among residents stemmed from not knowing the board and county representatives.
“We don’t know you,” she said. “So you have to make yourself familiar with us…This is what we must do if we ever get together and become one because we do have a part. We are grown folks, we are not children, and we refuse to be treated like a child. So you don’t have to talk to me or speak for me. I can speak very well for myself.”
Board Chairman fifth also noted the community’s suggestion to conduct midday meetings and discussions, especially for parents, live social media and Zoom meetings, and lunch and learns.
Another resident, Ben White, one of the founders of Fifth Ward Neighborhood Civic Club, expressed his concerns with the current board.
“The Julia C. Hester House, when you passed by at night, used to be a beacon, a light in a troubled place in a dark place, the light’s gonna be off because Harris County operates from eight to five,” White said.
White suggested turning the center into a paid service that can support itself through contributions. He also suggested Ellis and Dutton appoint a new and “functional” board that would be able to raise money and a separate advisory board that would be the “heartbeat of the community” and reside in the Fifth Ward.
“I’m sitting here living three blocks from the neighborhood, grew up in the neighborhood, know what the Hester House used to be like for us that grew up in this community, and the bottom line is…uh uh,” White said. “That’s not what we want…I’m not trying to criticize the county, but the bottom line is the Health House belonged to this community, and those four board members shouldn’t have gave us away. Shame on you.”
Residents were also concerned about where the balance of more than $3 million would go once the county took over. Some wondered if it would still be allotted to the center.
Ellis clarified to the Defender that it would.
“That money was earmarked for the Hester House, and that’s where it would go,” Ellis said. “I’m not in any way trying to recoup what the county has spent to operate it for about 17 years. What I’m saying is going forward, we can no longer do capital expenditures. We have been doing those, but the law is clear now…That 3 million for capital expenditures is a godsend, but I can identify a good $5 million in capital expenditures, you could spend $3 million just upgrading that daycare facility. I get the skepticism, but the point is it is county money that’s running the facility now.”
