When the lights went out across Houston during the 2021 winter freeze, Joetta Stevenson and other community leaders scrambled to feed and shelter residents left in the cold.
Volunteers packed bags of fruit and snacks from the back of Stevenson’s SUV in subfreezing temperatures outside Denver Harbor’s warming center because Kashmere Gardens, Fifth Ward and nearby neighborhoods did not have one open.
Four years later, that absence has been addressed. The Kashmere Gardens Multi-Service Center, which also serves as a designated resiliency hub, now has a permanent backup generator, ensuring that future disasters will not leave residents without power or in the heat.
A community victory years in the making
The new generator was funded through a $900,000 budget amendment spearheaded by Houston City Councilmember Letitia Plummer. Installed months ahead of schedule, it marks a milestone for the Northeast Houston communities of Kashmere Gardens, Fifth Ward and Trinity Gardens. These neighborhoods have endured repeated flooding, power outages and heat emergencies with limited resources.
“I am so elated because this community has been waiting for approximately six years. They’ve been advocating for this and so it just makes me feel really accomplished. It takes so long to get things done in the public sector.”
Councilmember Letitia Plummer
“I am so elated because this community has been waiting for approximately six years,” Plummer told the Defender. “They’ve been advocating for this and so it just makes me feel really accomplished. It takes so long to get things done in the public sector.”
Plummer, who has witnessed seven natural disasters impact Houston, said she pushed the amendment after seeing firsthand how disasters disproportionately affected seniors, low-income residents and those with chronic medical needs. During previous freezes, many residents were unable to refrigerate insulin or charge oxygen machines.
“During the freeze [Winter Storm Uri in 2021], we had no electricity,” Plummer said. “These communities didn’t have a multipurpose center. They couldn’t go to any particular place during the freeze or the flood…It [the center] was earmarked in the books as a resilience hub and when I looked deeper into it, we realized there was nothing resilient about it.”
From advocacy to installation
Community advocates like Stevenson and Keith Downey, president of the Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood Council #52, kept the pressure on City Hall for years.
“It [resilience hub] means a safe haven for residents to have a place to come and know that the power will be on…,” said Downey, who is also founder of the Northeast Houston Redevelopment Council. “It will also save lives, because when we lose power and there’s a freeze, or we have a disaster, residents need a place to come.”
Downey noted that local volunteers, nonprofits and churches had often filled the gaps when the city failed to act during storms like Hurricane Beryl and past winter freezes.
“Grassroots leaders were scrambling to make sure that these centers were open,” he said. “We were making phone calls to the mayor and city council leaders. We were desperate….Nobody should be left behind. My motto is, if I’m staying warm, I want the next man to stay warm.”
The Northeast corridor’s resilience gap
For Stevenson, president of the Greater Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood #55, who has lived in the Fifth Ward since childhood, the new generator symbolizes long-overdue recognition for the city’s historically underserved neighborhoods. She recalled apartment complexes left without power for days, families with newborns and elders struggling in extreme heat and years of disinvestment in basic infrastructure.
“The Northeast corridor was probably one of the hardest hit areas in the entire state of Texas during Hurricane Harvey,” Stevenson said. “It’s more of an area that has not gotten the attention, the funding, the expertise necessary to provide us with our basic things. When we are hit with disasters and such, it can have a devastating impact.”
A blueprint for equitable disaster planning
Plummer said the Kashmere Gardens project is part of a larger effort to expand Houston’s resiliency infrastructure. Following the installation, the city allocated $101.3 million to a Power Generation Resilience Program for the remaining 20 multi-service centers across Houston, prioritizing communities with the greatest vulnerability.
“When a storm comes, every neighborhood suffers on some level,” Plummer said. “But there are some communities that are already starting below zero. When they’re hit by a disaster, they don’t have the savings or the resources to be able to just survive. Being able to create connectivity of resiliency is critical because it allows communities to continue to thrive during the times when they’re the most vulnerable.”
She emphasized that the project’s success stemmed from strong collaboration between elected officials and residents.
“The community told me what they needed,” Plummer added as advice to other council members. “I would say go to your community leaders, talk to the community, spend time with them and understand what their challenges are and then allow them to assist you in pushing initiatives like this forward.”
Beyond electricity: Building trust
For Downey, the generator is more than an infrastructure win.
“There’s a gap and a lack of trust. When you start doing things for people as a government entity, you start building trust,” Downey said. “That means a lot to the community.”
He added that the resilience hub will also serve as a food distribution and disaster-recovery training site, with nonprofits like Target Hunger already involved.
“With this generator now, we are sure to have power, so let there be light,” he said.
For longtime residents like Stevenson, who remembers packing food by flashlight during the winter freeze, the hum of the new generator is a sound of progress.
“This is bigger than a win-win for me and for the residents in this community,” she said.
