HOUSTON, Texas — A Houston family had to clean up major damage to their home after part of a large tree on the city's property crashed into their living room.
Over the last few years, the Mendoza family got increasingly concerned about the tree growing next door on city land. They said a few branches came down after Hurricane Ike and in 2022, a lot more started falling.
“A few almost caused damage to the cars parked on the street,” said Mendoza.
In 2023, larger pieces from the tree came down, damaging their fence. They said despite the tree being on city land, they were left to foot the bill for the broken fence.
“For the fence, it’s going to cost me $5,000,” said Mendoza.
Mendoza is on disability and his wife is retired. They couldn't afford the $5,000 repair, so they decided to repair the fence themselves by keeping it together with two cords.
Their daughter was frustrated with all they've had to endure so she reached out to the city herself to try and get help.
“I have I think six cases where I kept calling them because I was like well maybe they’re not paying attention to you because maybe they’re not understanding Spanish,” said Karina Aguirre.
Aguirre said she contacted the city multiple times. She had hoped the city would remove the tree before it came down on her family's home.
“The noise was so bad that all of our neighbors came out," she described of the tree falling. "They were like is everybody okay."
Aguirre said the repairs to their home would likely cost her parents thousands more.
“If it rains, all the water is going to get inside the house and more than that," Aguirre said. "They don’t have the funds to go ahead and say okay, it’s a quick fix, let me go ahead and start calling people to fix it. It’s something that they’re not going to be able to afford anytime soon."
The Mendoza family wants the city to get rid of the tree for good.
“They kept sending people and leaving the brochure that everything’s okay with the tree, but obviously it wasn’t because it broke the fence," Aguirre said. "There were branches on the sidewalk, and now inside."
The Mendoza family said the Houston Parks and Recreation Department came out to examine the tree. They claimed the city said it would only clean up anything that is off of their property.
KHOU reached out to multiple city departments to figure out why. We've yet to hear back.
The family set up a GoFundMe to help clean up this mess.