Houston’s I-45 expansion is paused. Nearby residents in the freeway’s path are still being displaced

State plans for expanding Interstate 45 in Houston have officially been paused for over a year. But one thing remains in motion — the displacement of people living in the wider freeway’s proposed path. People who’ve left in recent weeks include both tenants who have been officially relocated from public housing that would be torn down in the planned expansion and those sheltering in tents under highways who have heard through word of mouth that they’ll have to leave. As in many areas impacted by the prospect of the I-45 expansion, the exodus from the northeastern corner of downtown echoes the area’s past upheavals. Before the Clayton Homes public housing complex was built or the highways that shelter encampments were constructed, an entire neighborhood, now erased from the map, was forced to relocate. In the past year, over 110 residents of Clayton Homes have been relocated by the Houston Housing Authority to make way for the expansion, said David A. Northern, chief executive of the authority, in an email. As of July 19, only 19 households remained. All but two had already found their next home, pending inspections and other paperwork.

Northern said two mixed-income communities planned nearby would include replacement units specifically reserved for displaced Clayton Homes residents, who will have the first right to return after construction is complete. “HHA’s intention was to complete construction and welcome Clayton families to their new community before the TxDOT demolition of the original building,” he said. He blamed “not-in-my-backyard-minded developers” in Second Ward of “intentionally” stalling plans to build two mixed-income communities within two miles of Clayton Homes. Out of the families that have been relocated, approximately 10 percent moved to other public housing units throughout the city, Northern said. People living in tents across the street from the housing complex said they’d been told they’d have to move in the coming weeks. “I’ve heard they want to move us out — something about a highway,” said a woman living with her dog in a tent in the shadow of U.S. 59. She declined to give her name because family members were unaware she’d lost her home after her husband died.