Ceiling damage is visible in a classroom and kitchen at the Latino Learning Center in Houston, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025.

If you want to know what it's like to be voiceless in a congressional district screaming to be heard, the Latino Learning Center offers one of the clearest and most painful examples.

Former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee fought for the center, a pillar in the community that has offered vocational training for adults and care for the elderly since 1979. Thanks to the late congresswoman's work, the center was set to receive a nearly $2 million federal grant to help pay for the repairs to the century-old building on the east edge of downtown where the Second and Third Wards converge.

HOUSTON CITY HALL: Some employees receive pension pay after Chronicle report, but hundreds are still waiting

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

When Jackson Lee died in July 2024, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner took up the cause as the representative for the 18th Congressional District. Then he died in March, the money did not make it into the federal budget, and the........

© Houston Chronicle