Southwest Houston

Southwest Houston is a region in Houston, Texas, United States.

South West Houston is considered to be the area from around Beltway 8 to Highway 6, south of Interstate 10. Many low-income apartment complexes are located in Southwest Houston. The apartment complexes bordered by U.S. Route 59 (Southwest Freeway) and Bissonnet Road, including properties along Bellaire Boulevard and Gulfton Drive, are dense and known for crime. Illegal immigrants came to the apartments, which began attracting low income tenants after the 1980s Texas oil bust. Hurricane Katrina refugees came to the apartments in 2005. About 1/5 of Houston's homicides in 2005 occurred in this area.

The Houston Metropolitan Chamber, formerly the Greater Southwest Houston Chamber of Commerce, serves several neighborhoods often identified as "Southwest Houston."

From the 1980 U.S. Census to the 1990 Census, many African-Americans left traditional African-American neighborhoods and entered parts of Southwest Houston; areas of Southwest Houston received from more than 1,000 African-Americans per square mile to more than 3,500 African-Americans per square mile. Many Asian-Americans moved into Southwest Houston during the same period. They were mostly Chinese American, Indian American, and Pakistani American; some pockets of Cambodian Americans, Korean Americans, and Vietnamese Americans appeared during that period.

On May 31, 2013, the Houston Fire Department suffered its largest casualty in a single event, the Southwest Inn fire, with four firefighters killed and 13 others were injured while fighting a 5-alarm fire at Southwest Inn, located in the Greater Sharpstown district of Southwest Houston.

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