Rio GrandeValley colonia residents met last month in a Cumbre de Colonias, or summit, at the San Juan offices of La Union del Pueblo Entero, which organized the conference. LUPE officials plan to hold cumbres every other year, just before state lawmakers can start filing bills for the next legislative session.
The group identified eight problem areas that need to be addressed: immigration reform, safety, streetlights, drainage, health, street improvements, health and driving permits. These essentially are the same problems that have plagued the substandard neighborhoods forever, and define them as colonias.
We wish them luck in what seems like a never-ending struggle to have their basic needs met.
Of course, they never will be met if law and policy makers continue to ignore colonias outright.
It’s no secret that government at all levels is responsive — and not in a good way. Elected officials normally jump from crisis to crisis — at times even creating a crisis themselves — evidently to show constituents that they are solving problems.
The proliferation of colonias is an age-old problem in South Texas. More than 2,200 of them have been identified in Texas, with almost half a million residents. About half of those colonias, and residents, are in the Valley.
The state defines colonias as housing developments that lack basic services such as drinking water, paved roads and wastewater infrastructure. Most of them are illegal, sold by unscrupulous developers to unsuspecting families who dream of affordable housing. Generally they are in areas that never will have those services, because cities and counties have deemed them uninhabitable. In the Valley they generally are in low-lying areas that are prone to flooding.
Several people, including prominent Valley residents and government officials, have been convicted of creating colonias. Unfortunately, no mechanism was ever established to help residents recoup their investment so they can find more habitable places to live.
LUPE isn’t the first organization to try to help colonia residents. Valley Interfaith, the Texas Civil Rights Project and others have championed them, eventually falling to the futility of their efforts.
The struggle must continue, however — not just because the people who live there deserve better, but because they can affect the health of all Valley residents.
Floods are all too common in this low-lying area that’s in the Atlantic hurricane corridor. In colonias the floodwaters can fill the area with untreated sewage and uncollected garbage that can grow more fetid until the waters recede. In the meantime, vermin, flies and mosquitoes can pick up germs and diseases from the muck and carry them throughout the region.
Addressing the needs of colonia residents is only part of the problem, and we hope that this time, LUPE and colonia residents can find a receptive ear. More importantly, we hope local and state officials recognize that substandard developments put everyone at risk, and they must work harder to keep any more illegal and substandard developments from arising.
