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HUD Housing, From Hood to Good
A Story of Success in Improving Safety in Low-Income
Housing.
by S.C.Doran
The University of Toledo MSW Intern for Reynolds Elementary
Community School Program
The 43615 zip code covers parts of Ottawa
Hills, Sylvania, and Sylvania Township as well as Toledo.
There are approximately 6 elementary schools in the area,
more than 20 churches, and a number of assisted living
centers. 43615 also has a number of small farms, a handful
of small colleges, a couple of strip clubs and a number of
bars/pubs and restaurants. Colorful might be a good way of
seeing the area, yet interestingly in 2010 a person was
about twice as likely to be raped, three times as likely to
get robbed and burgled compared with Ohio crime stats on the
whole if they lived in the 43615 area zip code. (CLRSearch.com)
Southgate Woods Circle apartments used to be part of the
problem. In fact,
it had one of the worst ratings by HUD before it was
purchased by Southgate Woods LLC. According to Officer Below
of Toledo Police Department, "It was so bad, I would just
park my vehicle down the street because I knew I would be
back several times a night."
When the new ownership
team moved in, the first thing new manager Angela Smith did
was hire a private security company, AJ
Bureau of Investigation. This put armed security guards on
site through the night, seven nights a week in the
beginning.
Smith also had lights
installed throughout the complex, "I needed it to be like
daytime out there." The next step was to limit access to the
property by fencing it in, re-directing the flow of traffic,
and adding a gate that requires a code or a call to be
allowed in.
There are now cameras on
the property to monitor activity and ensure property safety.
These simple solutions reduced problems almost immediately
for the residents and management however, it didn't
completely remove all crime at the site.
Smith reports that they
were still calling on TPD two or three times a night, but as
things progressed in the redesign of the complex, the number
of calls to TPD has gone down to
about once a
month. It would have been easy for the previous owners to
have made these few changes, but for whatever reason, they
had not invested in these logical solutions to the crime
that was happening in this complex.
Even before the beginning
steps had been taken, Smith began walking around her
complex. It was important to meet her renters, and it gave
her the chance to talk with them about what changes were
coming.
As she explored the
apartments and townhomes, the realization came that they
needed a lot of work. Windows, interior doors, roofs,
siding, paint – both interior and exterior, kitchens,
carpet, tile and all the hallways needed to be renovated.
Smith was shocked and
dismayed at the condition the dwellings were in when she
began. She had a
hard time understanding how the past owners could have
people living in housing that had no interior doors and with
heaters that had been torn from walls and never replaced. It
was especially shocking due to the fact that this was tax
dollar-subsidized housing. It was definitely a challenge to
get the complex up to code, and to create a place
that people could feel safe and be safe living in.
Another important change
was the enforcement of the standard HUD leasing agreement.
Smith explained to current tenants, "you're part of the
solution, or you're part of the problem here." Then she
would go through the whole lease, and explain it all in
detail to the tenants, making sure they fully understand it
before they signed it.
Right at the start they
evicted 89 people. Today they have a waiting list to move in
that is nearly equal to the prior eviction rate.
Additionally, HUD requires inspection annually, which the
previous owners reported they had adhered to. Smith and her
now site manager, Tiffani, inspect
the units at Southgate Woods every 90 days allowing them to
get ahead of problems before they get too far out of hand.
While repairing the property, it was also time to begin
rebuilding the relationship with Toledo Police Department (TPD).
Smith would call them and then follow through on any charges
she filed. Officer Below of TPD spoke about how Smith would
go to court and support the police officers in getting
convictions or in enforcing evictions.
They could count on her
and the relationship began to heal. Today TPD is working
closely with Smith to help improve other high-crime housing
complexes. When asked why TPD is reaching out to community
members to help
improve the community through prevention rather than simply
prosecution, Officer Below vehemently stated that, "it's
about human rights and protecting those rights as well as
protecting people."
During her first year,
Smith realized that many of the residents in the complex
were young, single mothers. She worked with them one-on-one,
helping them where she could. She had an open door policy
for the children of Southgate Woods, often having them in
her office coloring, or hosting after school tutoring for
them.
Countless hours were spent
in front of her office computer with the children, picking
out playgrounds for the complex, and finally the children
watched as their design was brought to reality in the play
area of the complex. The kids would also walk the complex
with Smith and pick up trash and talk to her about their
dreams.
She always made sure to
talk to them about the world outside of where they were
living at that time. "There's
a whole big world out there a lot bigger than this one area,
so you are not trapped, that gang, or this block isn't
everything; you can move out and do anything you want."
Recently, one of the young men who grew up in Southgate
graduated from high school and shared with Smith that he had
joined the military, in part because of what she had told
him all the years he lived there.
Today site manager,
Tiffani, says it is important to, "meet them where they are
at." She continues the good work Smith started at Southgate.
The community is thriving and even with all of the
improvements, the over-all profits have improved right along
with its safety. Perhaps this shows investing in the people
and the process by providing a higher level of service is
not only valuable from the human aspect, but also from the
monetary aspect.
Seeing the changes at
Southgate Woods has inspired TPD as well as others in our
area; reminding us all that logical, simple, determined and
thoughtful changes applied to even the ugliest of problems
can result in huge improvements.
You can find other Toledo
areas that have been improved by investing in the human
element all over Toledo: the Cherry Street Legacy Project,
United North, The University Church Reynolds Community
School program, West Toledo, Sleepy Hollow Block-Watch and
many more. Possibly the most important thing to understand
here is, that many
hands make light work and so when the opportunity presents
itself to get involved to improve the safety in our
community, do it.
" Without
a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community." Anthony
J. D'Angelo
References
Southgate Woods Apartments
| Toledo, Ohio. (2011, January 1). Retrieved November 18,
2014, from
http://section-8-housing.findthebest.com/l/7247/Southgate-Woods-Apartments
Data sourced from U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Developments (HUD)
Southgate Woods Apartments in Toledo, OH. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 18, 2014, from http://affordablehousingonline.com/housing-search/Ohio/Toledo/Southgate-Woods-Apartments/7530/
(S.C. Doran, Personal
interview, October, 2014) |
