The walls may be closing in on Colony Ridge, the controversial “colonia” north of Houston, Texas, that’s been labeled a “magnet” for crime and illegal immigration.
Now two federal agencies — the Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — have filed a lawsuit against the companies behind the 40-square-mile sprawl of homes, trailers and even tents, which is home to as many as 75,000 people in an area at least 50 percent bigger than Manhattan.
The agencies accuse the companies, all ultimately owned by multimillionaire brothers John and William “Trey” Harris, of predatory lending and misleading advertising.
The Harris brothers offer mortgages without Social Security numbers and told Texas Monthly they believe the majority of Colony Ridge’s population is undocumented immigrants from Latin America.
And, The Post is told, other federal and state agencies are also investigating the development, including the IRS, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The joint DOJ-CFPB suit, filed in federal court in Houston, accuses Colony Ridge Development LLC and its affiliates of using a bait-and-switch scheme to attract Latino homebuyers by falsely advertising a fantasy of low-cost housing with full utilities — but instead selling them homes on flood-prone property where they sometimes had to pay thousands for water meter or sewer hookups.
It alleges that the developers lured homebuyers with ads in Spanish while providing crucial transaction documents solely in English.
Colony Ridge’s developers have long lured Latino Americans and newer arrivals from Central and South America with slick ads promising cheap land and low down payments.
When The Post visited in October, we found signs saying “¿No crédito? ¡No problema!” dotting the 40-square-mile development on unincorporated land about 35 miles north of Houston.
Both locals and law enforcement sources told The Post that they believe the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels bought property here early and have considerable influence.
Texas Department of Public Safety statistics say there were 12 murders in Liberty County — which covers most of Colony Ridge — in 2022, compared to just one in 2011.
After The Post exposed the squalid living conditions at Colony Ridge, the left-leaning Texas Monthly countered with a story headlined “What’s Behind the Bizarre Freak-out over Colony Ridge.”
“The Houston exurb offers cheap land to hardworking families. But some in the GOP see the benefit in demonizing the migrants who’ve moved there,” the magazine wrote.
But, The Post has learned, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, is also investigating Colony Ridge, and has added its voice to the federal agencies accusing its owners of preying on hard-working Latino Americans.
Domingo Garcia, LULAC’s president, said Colony Ridge is a “stark example” of financial injustices plaguing Latinos in Texas.
Roughly one in four Colony Ridge loans ends in foreclosure, leaving families financially ruined, LULAC said.
“LULAC strongly supports the decision by the DOJ and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on behalf of Latinos who have lost millions of their hard-earned dollars,” he said.
“Even worse, their dreams of homeownership have been ripped away, and they have been left with the nightmare of financial loss and the uncertainty of where they and their families will live.”
Robert Rehak, a former top Chicago ad executive who moved to an area south of Colony Ridge after retirement and writes a blog, Reduce Flooding, where he has chronicled damage caused by what he says is poor drainage at the development since 2020, said LULAC’s involvement showed the issue was not a right-wing “freak out.”
“LULAC is pretty big in Texas and their involvement is going to open the door to a lot more things,” he said.
“It’s a signal that this has gone beyond right-wing media. It’s not just a bunch of kooks out to get illegal immigrants.”
Rehak is one of a number of activists in the area fighting Colony Ridge — many of whom have been called bigoted or racist against Latinos even though a number of them are Latino themselves.
Maria Acevedo, 51, a Latina American, bought a lot at Colony Ridge in 2018 where she planned to build a home with her husband.
But she told The Post she lost everything after making a small down payment on the $39,000 property, only to find a mysterious $7.6 million lien on it, eventually walking away from the transaction with nothing to show for it.
“To learn that these government entities are finally paying attention and going after these people was just a priceless feeling,” Acevedo told The Post this week.
“We’ve been the voices of a lot of Latinos at Colony Ridge who didn’t have a voice. It was outrageous how the developers were acting as if they were doing Hispanic people a favor when in fact they were taking advantage of us and ruining lives.”
Colony Ridge CEO John Harris said in a statement that the developers were “blindsided” by the lawsuit.
“The lawsuit is baseless and both outrageous and inflammatory,” he said.
“Our business thrives on customer referrals because landowners are happy and able to experience the American Dream of owning property.
“We loan to those who have no opportunity to get a loan from anyone else and we are proud of the relationship we have developed with customers. We look forward to telling the true story of Colony Ridge.”
https://nypost.com/2023/12/29/news/feds-sue-illegal-immigrant-magnet-colony-ridge-developers/
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