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Residents and nonprofit urge Dripping Springs council to intervene after 60-day eviction notices at Gateway Estates
Summary
Residents of Gateway Estates and representatives of Hometown Missions told the council that 36 households received 60-day certified letters from a lease servicer tied to Santio Enterprises, pressing the city to seek more time and assess whether development permits exist. The council said staff would attempt to contact the property owner and explore options to extend relocation time.
Chuck Lamond, a founder of local nonprofit Hometown Missions, told the Dripping Springs City Council on Aug. 6 that every household at Gateway Estates — a mobile-home park in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction — recently received certified letters he described as eviction notices from Santio Enterprises, the lease servicer for Gateway Development LLC.
"This letter is shocking, and just a terrible thing," Lamond said, urging the council to help residents who include elderly people, people with serious health conditions and families with school-age children. He and other speakers said the letters gave residents 60 days to vacate and that finding replacement housing in or near Dripping Springs is effectively impossible for many.
Janice Engelhardt, who said she serves on the Hometown Missions board, described an elderly couple of 28 years at Gateway Estates and another household caring for an adult with special needs, arguing that a 60-day window is unreasonable and asking the council to help secure more time. Resident speakers added personal accounts of illness, dementia and recent deaths among neighbors and said moving mobile homes alone can take six to eight weeks.
City staff and the mayor told speakers the council had not yet seen the certified letters. The mayor said staff would collect the letters and that the city had no permits on file for redevelopment at the site. "I have a contact I can contact and see if we can at least have a conversation about extending it," the mayor said.
The council did not take formal action during public comment. Council members asked residents to provide copies of the letters to staff so the city could evaluate legal options, timelines and whether any permits or filings exist. The mayor and several council members committed to share information with a central contact provided by Hometown Missions and to follow up if outreach to the property owner yields an extension or other relief.
Next steps: Council staff said they would review any submitted letters, check permitting records, and attempt to contact Santio Enterprises or the owner about extending relocation timelines. No city policy or ordinance change was proposed at the meeting.
