Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Tenants tell of woes at North Little Rock housing complex
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Living conditions at Hickory View Apartments, a publicly funded housing complex in North Little Rock, were bad last year and have only worsened, tenants said Saturday in a news conference outside the complex.
Just over a year ago, several of the tenants spoke to reporters, saying their apartments lacked necessary safety features and their maintenance requests were going unanswered.
Arkansas Renters United organized last year’s and Saturday’s news conferences, and six women were present for Saturday’s.
“We’re not complaining to try to get money,” said Hattie Temple, who has lived at Hickory View for six years. “We just want to get our building fixed.”
While their complaints were largely the same as last year’s, the residents said an additional concern is a lack of security at Hickory View.
Hickory View consists of two buildings, Heritage House and Cedar Gardens.
Temple lives on the 11th floor of Heritage House and said her ceiling has brown spots that have led her to worry that it might collapse.
“[Management] sent us to a motel for five days, and it looked worse when we came back than it did when we left,” she said.
Temple reiterated the concern she had last year that elderly residents might fall in the showers, which do not have handrails.
She said the apartments’ doors do not have screens or peepholes, and some do not have locks.
She and another resident, Vickie Gillame, who uses a wheelchair, said the kitchen cabinets and counters are installed too high for residents who have disabilities. Gillame has lived at Hickory View since 2009 and has switched units more than once.
“I had a resident who could speak for me to say I needed a handicap-accessible apartment, and I had a doctor’s statement also,” Gillame said.
“[ This] apartment was not handicap-accessible. The shower, I couldn’t get in it. It had a 4-inch step that I had to step over, and the shower chairs are cheap and not good.”
The group recounted instances of violence, including shootings, and the presence of stray dogs in the buildings.
Hickory View no longer has security guards or a reliable police presence, said Linda Jackson, who has lived on the 11th floor of Heritage House for eight years.
She served as one of three “resident security” officers for six months but said she did not receive the payment or rent discount she was expecting.
Hickory View building management and North Little Rock Housing Authority director Belinda Snow could not be reached for comment Saturday.
The two Hickory View buildings and four others have been undergoing renovations as part of programs run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The North Little Rock Housing Authority leased the buildings to private companies, though the housing agency still owns the land, in order to secure funding for maintenance and renovations.
This private ownership allows housing authorities to enter into contracts with banks and finance companies — whether through loans, tax credits, grants or a combination — to receive the millions of dollars available for plumbing, flooring, roofing, electrical, and other repairs and maintenance.
Three buildings, including Cedar Gardens, underwent Rental Assistance Demonstration, which converts Section 9 public housing to either the project-based or Section 8 housing- choice voucher program. For the other three buildings, including Heritage House, the housing agency combined the vouchers administered by Rental Assistance Demonstration with those administered by Section 18, which allows for demolition of aged buildings.
Snow told the Arkansas Democrat- Gazette in June that the housing authority had up to $90 million in needed repairs in 2016 when it started the conversion process.
She said residents had to move from unit to unit so the renovations could be done, and they sometimes had to sign new leases, but more often the only documents they had to sign were their Section 8 contracts so the housing authority could keep accurate records of who lived where and charge the correct rent.
Chandra Profit, another Heritage House resident, said the housing authority did not communicate to tenants exactly what they were signing, so she was under the impression she always had to sign a new lease.
The residents said their maintenance requests still are being ignored, an issue they raised a year ago. Gillame said only one light in her bathroom has worked for the past six months, and Celester Harris said it took three months for the property managers to try to fix her stove, which is still not fully repaired.
“They’re saying, ‘ We’re working on it, we’re working on it,’” Harris said. “That’s all I ever get.”