Guests in attendance: Representatives from the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector office, METRO (Colin & Evelina) and District H Councilman’s office (Ty)

Updates from District H Councilman’s Office

• Park updates: The final permitting hurdle involves getting clearances from AT&T and Centerpoint. While these clearances have been pending since March, the councilman’s office became aware of these in the last ~2 weeks. In that short time, Councilman Castillo reached out to his contacts at both AT&T and Centerpoint. AT&T has since given their clearance, while Centerpoint’s is outstanding.
  
  Huge thanks to Councilman Castillo, Ty and his team for their advocacy and quick action in getting us past this final permitting hurdle!
  
• Waste & Recycling: The new interim director at Solid Waste Management is taking steps to bring waste collection and recycling back to order. New orders have been placed for personnel and trucks, and new funding has been sought from the federal government for additional hiring (don’t hold your breath!) but issues may take a while to resolve, so continue to use 311 to report missed pickups and report them to the councilman’s office.
  
  No updates on if/when tree and yard waste collection will resume.
  
• Dept. of Neighborhoods Matching Grant Program
  
  The councilman’s office encouraged ESHA to apply for the matching grant program.
  The program involves multiple steps but in a nutshell, the neighborhood identifies a neighborhood beautification project idea. For ex:
  • public artwork in the form of murals, painting neighborhood boxes (see the boxes on the Heights walking trail as an example)
  • building a community garden
  • signage for the neighborhood
    
    Subsequently, the neighborhood representatives work with the COH point-of-contact on their proposal and complete an application for the grant.
    Upon approval, the neighborhood (via a 501(c)3) funds the completion of the project.
    Upon of the project completion, the neighborhood/501(c)3 is reimbursed up to $5000. (There need not be any “matching” involved. All funds upto the $5k would be reimbursed to the neighborhood if the application were approved, but the neighborhood must fund the project until completion.)
    
    Each nonprofit can apply for one $5000 “matching” grant/project per fiscal year.
    

Updates from METRO

Community Connector

• The Community Connector has seen great adoption in the Third Ward and Downtown. Adoption has been picking up in Heights North (that partially covers our neighborhood).
• The Community Connector has also been launched in Near Northside.
• The connector’s boundaries for Heights North has been expanded to Shepherd/Durham to the west, bringing HEB and restaurants into access. However, the north boundary now sits a bit below 25th St, hence riders living north of 25th St may need to walk a few blocks for a pickup. Exact boundaries can, as always, be found in the Ride Circuit app from where free rides can be requested between 7 AM – 5 PM.
  
  Downtown Direct (to IAH) Shuttle
• The Downtown to IAH Shuttle operates between George R. Brown center and IAH Terminal C from 5:30 AM to 8 PM, at $4.50 one way.
  Read more here

Updates from Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Office

• Representatives Renee and Tom were present.
• The HCTAO (made-up acronym) is not the same as HCAD. The Tax Assessors office collects tax payments and disburses it to the relevant agencies, but does not appraise the taxable value of homes.
• The Tax Assessor office strives to educate homeowners around protesting taxes, as well as options for delinquent property taxes such as payment plans or deferred payments.
  
  Workshops hosted by the office can be found here, or can be arranged for the neighborhood if desired.
  
  The prime goal of these workshops is to educate and assist homeowners so that they do not risk losing their homes due to delinquent property taxes. Additionally, the office also strives to educate homeowners/their beneficiaries around probate and inheritance of homes.
  
• The Tax Assessor office is also in charge of voter registrations, and provides training to aspiring volunteer deputy voter registrars, or have a voter registration table at events when invited.

Neighborhood Updates/Discussions

National Night Out: Brief discussions were had around hosting National Night Out (scheduled for October 7th, 2025). We will seek input on where to host it this year, but please send suggestions to eshaboard1@gmail.com if you’d like to offer an opinion proactively!

Halloween: ESHA will be looking for ways to lead/facilitate/participate in Halloween festivities in 2025… Please reach out to us if you have ideas or would like to volunteer.