THE ''NEW COLONIAS' NEAR HOUSTON

I have noticed how the area of Kings Colony in New Caney has become a barrio over the years. It turns out this is a statewide issue surrounding many large cities. The development company behind Kings Colony is Colony Ridge Land, LLC.  This is a interesting article that paints a grim picture of  life for so many in these parts. The land is cheap for a reason and they are being offered for little to no down payment. As home prices in Houston continue to soar, we will be seeing more such developments sprouting across the outskirts in once pristine forests.

Residents lament conditions in ‘new colonias’ near Houston

By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE - Associated Press 

NEW CANEY, Texas (AP) - The neighborhood is called Kings Colony, but the name just seems wrong. Reina Sanchez and her husband live here in a three-room house, built from the frame of a utility shed with plywood, tar paper, concrete blocks and whatever discarded materials they can find.

Their home is beyond the reach of a municipal water system, and the couple cannot afford a well or septic tank. So they use two 250-gallon plastic totes to capture and hold rainwater for drinking, bathing and washing dishes. An outhouse stands beneath a shade tree in the yard.

Around their half-acre lot in east Montgomery County, there are no sewers, sidewalks, street lights, parks or fully paved roads. The streets have so many potholes that those driving school buses, delivery trucks and even ambulances won’t go down them.

“We’ll need an airplane to get out of here if the roads get any worse,” Sanchez told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/29gxDqb ) , speaking through a translator.

More than anything, Kings Colony resembles the infamous colonias along the border with Mexico - places that typically aren’t associated with the suburban edges of Texas’ largest metropolitan areas. But that’s changing quickly as housing prices push Latino laborers to new colonias outside Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. An estimated 500,000 people live in these bare-bones real estate developments across the state.

No one knows exactly how many people live in Kings Colony, but there are 1,868 addresses listed in the latest directory of the property owners association. Nearby, in Liberty County, developers have carved thousands of lots from the piney woods, selling them to Spanish-speaking workers with promises of legal plats, drinkable water, drainage, electricity and internet hookups.