Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman made clear his discomfort with building more low- and moderate-income housing in the city, noting that the city has far more such public housing than other municipalities of this size.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgN0YRVXiDs&t=18s

The Port Arthur Housing Authority this week discussed the possibility of building new housing with federal funds at Bellbrook Estates, Edison Square or on Ninth Avenue. But Freeman, asked Thursday about that possibility on Port Arthur News Live!, said the city needs working people who pay property taxes to bolster Port Arthur’s base.

“There’s a lot of money out there right now” to build low- and moderate-income housing, he said, but Port Arthur has “five times” the amount of the state average of such housing.

“That’s not a direction we are looking to rebuild our city on,” he said. “At the end of the day, we (the City Council) will be the ones who approve it.”

Freeman said the push for federally funded housing may be viewed as part of the effort to keep the city’s population above 50,000, a benchmark for qualifying for federal grants. But the mayor said Port Arthur may already have 50,000 people living here and possibly as many as 60,000. However, he said, a large portion of the city’s Hispanic population — it represents more than 30 percent of Port Arthur’s residents — may be hesitant to respond to the Census count every 10 years for fear of encountering problems over their citizenship status.

Freeman said he’s been encouraged about construction of housing in and around downtown Port Arthur. There, city programs — Freeman said he was a skeptic, initially — have encouraged private construction of new homes that are already sold in advance to people who prove they can pay for their homes.

“Today, when I left City Hall, I was seeing the new homes and new slabs. We have to get some rooftops down there. People are excited about being there,” he said

He said he hopes the new residential construction can lure private investment for restaurants or small stores downtown, as well.

“For people who want to be in downtown port Arthur, that’s exciting,” he said of the construction.

Should the 2020 Census show Port Arthur with fewer than 50,000 residents, Freeman said, he hopes the city can get a waiver to continue receiving federal grants at the same level. He said Galveston applied for and was granted such a waiver when it encountered housing losses due to storms.

The mayor also answered questions on other topics:

He said he hopes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose work in the wake of 2017 storms was criticized by the General Accounting Office this week, will get needed funding to the city by this autumn. He said the slow federal response may be due the federal bureaucracy.

He’s confident new Police Chief Tim Duriso, who started work this week, will succeed in fostering community policing and soliciting citizen help in addressing crime. Duriso, he said, appears to have the complete support of not only the City Council that hired him but also the department.

The mayor said he’s heard of no problems since the City Council was trimmed down from nine to seven members this spring by voter mandate. He said meetings have been “shorter” with “less contention.”

Freeman said he’s pleased with the balanced budget that the professional staff will present the City Council on Tuesday night. City sewer and water will pay for itself and the city will add to, not take from, its reserves set aside for “rainy days.”