SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio woman who took part in two taxpayer-funded home renovation programs says the contractor hired by the city has left her residence in a further state of disrepair.
“Just real shocking stuff,” said Norma Ramirez, whose Northeast Side home on Bains Landing Street was worked on in 2023 under the city of San Antonio’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department Minor Home Repair Program and Under 1 Roof Program.
Construction projects fall apart
Ramirez said that by late 2022, her home had seen better days.
“The house was in very dire need of repairs, starting with the outside, inside,” said Ramirez, who told KSAT she could not afford to renovate the property.
But NHSD’s programs gave Ramirez a chance to resurrect her home.
In early 2023, Ramirez entered NHSD’s Minor Home Repair Program as well as its Under 1 Roof Program, after she claims city staff told her she could qualify for a new roof.
The city would cover the cost of interior and exterior home improvements as long as Ramirez agreed to remain living at the property for 10 years, according to a copy of the minor repair agreement obtained by KSAT Investigates.
The city also agreed to replace the home’s roof, as long as Ramirez stayed living there for five years, the signed contract shows.
The contracts stipulated that the work would be performed by city-hired contractors.
For Ramirez’s projects, Pro Masters Remodeling was chosen, records show.
The total projected cost of the work was $63,024.57. That included a roof replacement, bathroom renovations, new exterior siding and paint, flooring installation and a new HVAC system, according to records.
The projects were completed in May 2023, with slight adjustments to the cost, according to city records.
But a subcontractor stepping through the ceiling while working in the attic was a sign of things to come, according to Ramirez.
Footage recorded by KSAT inside the home shows water pooling in the wall of her renovated master bathroom when the shower is turned on.
The property’s enclosed porch had to have its ceiling and walls removed this summer, after significant amounts of rain entered the room through the recently installed outdoor siding and the replaced roof.
The torn-out drywall showed extensive amounts of mold, pictures provided by the Ramirez family show.
The torn-out walls of the enclosed porch also revealed another construction defect: columns of siding nails installed by workers missed wall studs.
Ramirez provided records to KSAT showing she repeatedly contacted NHSD about the construction issues, including after the home’s flue pipe became dislodged.
The pipe, which removes dangerous combustion byproducts like carbon monoxide from a home, had become separated near the attic’s ceiling, pictures provided by NHSD and the Ramirez family show.
NHSD Director Veronica Garcia acknowledged the dislodged flue pipe in a letter to Ramirez in November 2023, but wrote that its condition was not the result of work done by Pro Masters or one of its subcontractors.
“This can only occur by applying force in excess of what could occur naturally,” wrote Garcia, who added that the current condition of the HVAC system posed a health and safety risk to people inside the home.
Garcia’s letter also states the city had provided a third-party consultant that summer to inspect the property and to ensure the work approved by the city had been done properly.
Ramirez family says workers used their storage shed as a bathroom
Ramirez also questioned the professionalism of workers and city staff assigned to her home’s projects.
Footage recorded by Ramirez’s son shows him confronting a subcontractor in a backyard storage shed.
“Hey! Don’t be taking a piss in my shed, too. Come on, I have a bathroom. Be decent. Be decent. I have a bathroom,” the son said in the recording, as the worker walks out of the shed, shrugs and puts his hands out to the side.
Ramirez told KSAT her family discovered human waste in the shed and also found grocery bags of human excrement buried in leaves in the backyard, even though she had given permission to the workers to use restrooms inside the home.
Ramirez said the family eventually got rid of the soiled shed.
In a separate incident, an NHSD employee sent to the Ramirez home for family support instead repeatedly admonished Ramirez’s son for recording videos of workers on his cell phone.
“If you’re going to use this for any type of legal or public view, it is illegal,” the NHSD employee inaccurately told Ramirez’s son.
SAPD records show someone at the home called San Antonio police in early May 2023 to report that workers were damaging the property.
Officers showed up at the home but then left after the caller could not be located at the scene.
Tensions boil over during re-inspections
Frustration over how the projects were handled finally boiled over in December 2023, according to footage provided by the Ramirez family and a separate San Antonio police report.
Then-NHSD Affordable Housing Administrator Ann Eaton and Pro Masters Remodeling owner Francisco Ruiz were accompanied by SAPD officers while at the property to look over some of the repairs.
“The caller stated that the other party applied for city assistance with home repairs and the repairs were not done correctly. The caller stated that she has been in contact with the other party, but the other party has been harassing her. The caller stated she does not feel safe checking on the home without police presence, and officers remained on scene,” an SAPD incident report for the visit states.
“We invited the police just to escort so that we can ensure safety for everyone,” Eaton said in the recording.
After Ramirez’s son responded that the group had “canceled on us last time,” Eaton said, “If you’re going to be disruptive, we’re going to leave.”
Eaton threatened to have the group leave several more times as Ramirez’s son asked if the work would be brought “up to code,” the recording shows.
“We would like to speak to your mother, she’s the homeowner, so we can look at the roof. We’re not here to debate all the other things,” Eaton said in the recording.
During the same visit, Eaton was recorded telling Ramirez’s son to get out of her personal space as he pointed to an issue in the garage.
“Get out of their way. They’re trying to leave. Get out of their way,” the officer told the son.
Independent inspectors find numerous deficiencies with completed work
Weeks earlier, Ramirez paid for two independent inspections of the work that had been completed.
The first inspector found 156 deficiencies and 14 safety hazards, according to a copy of the inspection provided to KSAT by Ramirez.
The issues included damaged sheet rock from a worker stepping through the ceiling and no starter strip on the newly constructed roof.
“Wind gets up under here strong enough, right? It will blow off shingles like a zipper effect,” a roofer told Ramirez’s son while looking at the completed work, in a recording provided to KSAT.
The second independent inspector provided an even harsher review of the city-managed projects.
After writing that the project had been “very poorly handled,” the inspector stated: “The idea that the homeowner has been blamed for some of the issues by restricting access for safety purposes to prevent further damage to their home and for demanding taxpayers (sic) money be used appropriately and efficiently through the COSA (City of San Antonio) program is ludicrous. The work conducted and overseen by the City of San Antonio has been completely incompetent and very concerning not just as a Professional Inspector and Educator but as a taxpayer. The gross negligence by San Antonio Development Services is astounding and should be enforced as a criminal act to include wire fraud, as I stated above we recommend you contact the AG (Attorney General) and the DOJ (Department of Justice) to consider action against the city and their employees that worked outside of the laws requiring the building codes to be followed.”
Ramirez, in March of last year, sent Ruiz a claim letter stating that his company failed to finish the scope of the work and did not address “known project deficiencies.”
The letter states improper roofing materials were used, the roof was not properly flashed, and that Ramirez had to finally hire a third party to reinstall the dislodged flue pipe.
Other issues listed in the letter include claims that the exterior of the home was painted while it was raining and that the job was abandoned without the flooring being replaced.
Reached for comment, Ruiz told KSAT via email he could not directly comment on the work performed before stating that Ramirez’s adult son had interfered and sabotaged the entire project.
Ruiz referred all other inquiries to NHSD and the city’s Development Services Department.
City officials said the flooring portion of the renovations inside Ramirez’s home, which still does not have flooring installed, was removed from the initial scope of work to accommodate needed repairs and to stay within budget.
Ramirez investigated filing a lawsuit to recover the losses, but has been unable to find an attorney willing to take the family’s case.
No one associated with the city, NHSD or the contractors hired to handle the home renovations has been found liable for violating any laws or building codes in connection with the projects.
According to a recent city auditor’s report, NHSD’s Minor Home Repair Program is funded through three main sources: the city’s general fund, the 2022 bond program and grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The report states the Under 1 Roof Program was funded from the city’s general fund.
More than 500 homes in San Antonio have been accepted into NHSD home rehabilitation programs each of the past four years, according to data provided to KSAT following a public records request.
Eaton resigned from the city while it investigated discounted foundation work at her personal residence
Eaton resigned from NHSD last year while being investigated for receiving discounted home foundation work from Pro Masters Remodeling, the same contractor assigned to Ramirez’s property.
Eaton, according to city Office of Municipal Integrity records, got a more than 40% discount on the work performed last year at her Southeast Side residence.
Eaton resigned in August 2024, two months after OMI began probing her relationship with Pro Masters, records show.
Eaton declined to comment for this story through a spokesman for the City of Austin, where she now works.
OMI eventually determined that no policy violations occurred, in part, because NHSD at that time did not have rules banning employees from using city contractors for personal use, records show.
The report notes that NHSD has since added a policy prohibiting employees from hiring program contractors.
Eaton’s discount and resignation were unrelated to Ramirez’s complaints.
NHSD paid Pro Masters nearly $14.5 million for construction work completed from May 2019 to this summer, city records show.
NHSD director rushed from room as KSAT attempted to ask questions
An NHSD spokesman told KSAT via email that Ramirez began complaining about the work done at her home after the projects were completed in May 2023.
“City staff and the contractor conducted multiple site visits to try to address the homeowner’s concerns. After the homeowner became belligerent with City staff and refused to consider recommended solutions the project was closed,” the statement reads.
“Every time they came and checked, it was a very brief assessment,” said Ramirez, who denied that she was belligerent or that her son had interfered with the work performed.
KSAT attempted to ask Garcia questions about the Bains Landing projects after she presented at a recent budget work session.
Once the meeting ended, however, Garcia was quickly whisked from the room by city staff and placed in a back room.
When asked if she regretted applying for the two city programs, Ramirez told KSAT, “Absolutely. One thousand percent.”
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.