FAYETTEVILLE -- Some residents living in public housing at Willow Heights and their neighbors worry the area they will move to lies farther from a grocery store or the library and has more crime.
About 30 residents and neighbors mostly from the south end of town voiced concerns Thursday during a two-hour meeting held at the Willow Heights Community Center, formerly Prism Education Center. Architect William Wiedower of Heiple+Wiedower Architects and civil engineer Jorge DuQuesne of Blew and Associates showed participants renderings of the proposed expansion at Morgan Manor.
Meeting information
The Planning Commission will take up the large-scale development plan for the Morgan Manor expansion at 5:30 p.m. Monday in Room 219 of City Hall, 113 W. Mountain St.
Morgan Manor, at 324 E. 12th Place, sits about 1 mile south of Willow Heights. The Fayetteville Housing Authority operates the 52-unit complex under a form of Section 8 combining public and private equity to provide rental assistance to low-income residents.
Deniece Smiley, Housing Authority director, said dwindling money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over the years and the magnitude of work needed to bring the 1970s-era Willow Heights to modern standards pushed the decision to sell the land. Residents at Willow Heights will move to 58 units to be built on about 3 acres of open land at the 9-acre Morgan Manor site. A few of the units will be available at a market rate to bring a mixed income to the area.
DuQuesne explained the project will require widening Wood Avenue and drainage improvements, but the conversation quickly turned to why Willow Heights residents have to move and how much communicating the Housing Authority did before the decision.
Chandra Hinton, who has lived at Willow Heights for about a year, said she was told the move was happening but not when and to where.
"I don't think at this time that we are being asked for input into it, and I'm not certain there was a time when everyone was asked for input," she said.
Smiley said the Housing Authority has already turned in its application to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration to get the tax credit making the move possible. The Willow Heights land sale to Vlad Tatter, a local electrician, also is under contract. The Housing Authority's meetings are open to the public and residents were notified with a letter, she said. One resident attended a previous community meeting on the topic.
"They're reducing our capital funds. They're reducing our operating funds," Smiley said. "What do you expect us to do? Let this building completely collapse? Because that's what's going to happen if we don't do something."
Melissa Terry, who lives near the area, asked about the cost to renovate Willow Heights. Tatter estimated it would take at least $20 million. Wiedower said the task would basically be impossible.
Terry surveyed about a dozen Willow Heights residents door-to-door and found they didn't want to move and had concerns about crime and connectivity in Morgan Manor's area, she said.
"I feel like the data backs up their perception," she said. "I feel like they're being evicted into a high-crime situation and putting their families at risk."
Renae Dobbs, another neighbor, asked Smiley to emphasize the importance of community engagement to the Housing Authority board and think about why only one person attended a previous meeting on the move.
"Everybody's passions are high, but what can we learn on both sides?" she said.
NW News on 06/09/2017