Parkside Village apartment complex under fire with bankruptcy, failing inspections
By J.B. Smith Tribune-Herald staff writer
After nearly two years of flunking government housing inspections, Waco’s Parkside Village remains a scene of crime and disrepair. But now its crisis is coming to a head.
Creditors are circling the bankrupt owners. Government officials are consider-ing revoking the complex’s low-income subsidies. And some local housing advocates are questioning whether the time has come to tear it down.
The 200-unit apartment complex is blighted by shattered windows, mud-covered walkways and vacant units left trashed, unlocked and open.
City of Waco inspector Al Lynch talks to a resident at Parkside Village.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald
One tenant said she has kept her gas oven and stove burners on through the winter because management failed to fix her broken heater until this week, when she called city inspectors.
Other tenants said they are afraid to go outside because of violence and drug-related crime, which police reports show far exceeds that in The Villages, the large housing complex next door.
Both complexes are privately owned but receive Section 8 federal subsidies to house low-income residents. They are accountable to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide decent and safe housing.
Officials with the city and local housing agencies say they feel powerless to find a solution for the deteriorating apartments.
The owner, American Housing Foundation, is in bankruptcy facing hundreds of millions of dollars in claims. It reportedly has no money to fix Parkside’s problems.
“Because it’s in bankruptcy court, basically all we can do is ask questions,” said Jeff Wall, director of Waco’s city housing department, which has no direct authority over Parkside. “All I can hear is there’s nothing we can do until somebody makes a decision, whether it’s the bankruptcy court or HUD.”
Officials at American Housing Foundation and Parkside did not respond to interview requests this week. The company also owns Robinson Garden Apartments, another Waco subsidized-apartment complex that failed federal inspections in 2009.
State and federal authorities have been slow to take punitive action against the owners, but that may be about to change.
Complex faces fines
After seeing Parkside’s problems firsthand this week, a top state-housing-compliance official said her office will step up its enforcement and may impose fines of thousands of dollars a day for violations.
Inspectors for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs failed the complex last April for dozens of health and safety violations, which included broken windows and inoperable ovens and toilets.
After the complex failed to fix those problems, the inspectors last October turned the case over to the IRS, which has the power to take back the $2.5 million in federal tax credits that American Housing Foundation sold to finance renovations in 2000.
“It may lead to an ownership and management change,” said Patricia Murphy, chief of compliance and asset oversight for TDHCA.
Murphy drove from her Austin office to visit Parkside on Friday, after an interview for this story alerted her to the property’s condition.
After a tour with a city inspector, she said serious new problems have arisen since the 2009 inspection, and another inspection will be scheduled quickly.
“I’ve seen things here that are not in good repair, and we need to come back and do a full inspection,” she said. “The issues at this complex are not isolated to physical condition. What we saw here is not just deferred maintenance.”
TDHCA will meet March 18 with representatives of American Housing Foundation. If the situation is not resolved, the agency will pursue administrative penalties of $1,000 a day for each health and safety violation, Murphy said.
“Our administrative penalties have proven very successful,” she said.
Without heat all winter
Among the tenants she visited Friday was the 32-year-old mother of three who says she has been without heat all winter.
This window at a vacant apartment at Parkside Village was one of many shattered throughout the complex. The unit was open and showed signs of vandalism.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald
The woman had called city inspectors earlier in the week, when temperatures were around freezing outside. City code enforcement officials said they talked to the property management Thursday and were assured the heater would be fixed.
In an interview at her apartment the day before, the woman had her gas burners on at full blast. The woman, who asked for anonymity because she fears retaliation, said the heater and air conditioner had been broken since September.
“I got scared yesterday,” the woman said Wednesday morning. “The TV said it’s a hazard to have them on. I tried last night turning them off, and I just about froze. My kids had to sleep with me.”
During Murphy’s visit with a city inspector Friday, a maintenance man at the complex said he had replaced the heater with a furnace from an unused apartment.
City inspectors said this isn’t the only case of heat not working at Parkside. Another occupied unit was “green-tagged” as unsafe earlier this year because the heater did not work, but it was later repaired, inspectors said.
Regional HUD officials in Fort Worth said they had received no tenant complaints about broken heaters.
“If we have people who haven’t had heat all winter, that’s totally unacceptable,” said regional HUD spokeswoman Patricia Campbell, adding that her office would follow up on the case.
HUD has the power to end the subsidy contract that provides most of the funding for Parkside.
Under the “project-based” Section 8 contract, the complex qualifies and selects low-income residents and charges them a fixed portion of their income as rent, with the government picking up the rest. A project could lose its contract after failing two inspections in a row under HUD guidelines.
Parkside failed two consecutive HUD inspections in 2008 but has not had one since. A follow-up inspection is planned for March 22.
Cutting off Parkside’s Section 8 would almost certainly shut down Parkside, but Campbell said her agency hopes to avoid that.
“We don’t like to do it, because it means people have to move, and in many communities there’s a dearth of affordable housing,” she said.
Campbell said American Housing Foundation representatives will meet this week with HUD officials in Fort Worth to discuss the condition of the property.
It’s unclear why HUD has not inspected Parkside in the past year and a half.
Parkside’s last inspection score on Aug. 28, 2008, was 29 out of 100, the worst in the state. Parkside’s previous score was 43 on April 9, 2008.
HUD’s stated policy is to inspect Section 8 properties every three years if their scores are good. But those with scores below 80 should be reinspected within a year, and those below 60 more than once a year.
Campbell said American Housing Foundation sent “certification” last June that it had corrected the problems, but it has taken nearly nine months to get national HUD officials to schedule a follow-up inspection.
In the past few months, HUD has sent a contractor to meet with tenants about potential improvements through a possible debt restructuring process called “Mark to Market,” but Campbell did not have details on that process.
Mike Stone, head of Waco Community Development Corporation, has been following Parkside’s struggles for years. He doubts that the debt restructuring will work.
Stone, whose nonprofit agency has been a leader in revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood, said he met with top American Housing Foundation executives in 2003. He said an executive told him that Parkside was losing $200,000 a year, and the company only bought it because it was part of a bundle of properties.
Stone said that even with the debt restructuring, it’s hard to imagine a business plan to make Parkside profitable.
“If they were losing money before, I don’t see with the condition of the property now how you could get it up to standard and make it a positive cash flow,” he said.
No easy answers
Other local leaders agreed that the complex is blighted and obsolete, and they would prefer mixed-income housing with a more open design.
City of Waco inspector Al Lynch checks out mechanical units in an apartment at Parkside Village. The subsidized-housing complex failed state and federal inspections for two years, and city code enforcement also found problems.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald
“You don’t want to warehouse all your low-income people together,” said Gary Moore, Waco Housing Authority executive director. “Mixed-income situations give people an incentive to do better. People who are struggling financially tend to just be surviving, and they don’t always feel they have a neighborhood to protect.”
However, Moore and other community leaders agree that just shutting down Parkside without finding better housing elsewhere for the tenants is no solution. And money for new subsidized housing is scarce, officials said.
“Some people are quick to say, let’s tear it down and build new stuff,” said Wall, the city housing director. “That sounds great, but where are those people going to go? . . . We have to remember there are human beings in these units.”
Councilwoman Toni Herbert, who represents North Waco, sees opportunity in the crisis.
“It’s a mess on every possible level,” she said. “But this may be one of those messes that actually ends up moving us forward faster than otherwise.”
Improvements stalled
A year ago, tenants, police and housing officials were hopeful that things were turning around at Parkside. In 2008, Parkside management attempted to get certified with Waco Police Department’s Multifamily Crime-Free Housing program, a three-phase effort that includes daily communication with the police department and rigorous screening of tenants.
“There were definite improvements and real sense of hope that things were looking up,” said Walker Moore, Waco CDC community organizer.
That momentum came to an end after April 1, 2009, when American Housing Foundation’s founder Steve Sterquell drove his car into a bridge abutment in what authorities ruled a suicide.
That led to the unraveling of a highly leveraged housing empire of about 14,000 units developed through federal tax credit financing.
At Parkside, money for improvements dried up. The crime-free housing certification process is stalled in the second phase.
Police Sgt. Jared Wallace said crime has fallen in the past year because of good communication between police and the manager, Lorrie Martinez.
“She works really well with us,” he said. “We’re seeing some good things. They’re managing the problem a lot better.”
Crime remains high at Parkside. Police reported 254 major crimes at Parkside last year, compared with 155 next door at the larger The Villages complex. Between 2008 and 2009, narcotics offenses dropped from 37 to 23, while assaults increased from 48 to 56, police records show.
On a visit to Parkside with a reporter Wednesday, Moore talked to a tenant who was part of the crime-free housing initiative last year. She said she still fears for her four children’s safety, and she has given up hope of a turnaround.
“They’ve made it quite clear they aren’t going to fix anything,” said the woman, who has lived at Parkside since 2006. “They need to shut it down. Tear it down. Who’s going to buy it? They’d be better off tearing it down than waste money redoing it.”
jbsmith@wacotrib.com
757-5752
RELATED SEARCHES
- Parkside owners will not invest more in 'underwater' low-income apartments
- Relocation of Parkside Village tenants likely after repeated failed inspections
- City of Waco ready to secure Parkside Village if owners can't
MORE IN WACO NEWS »
All this rhetoric and no answers that will impact the individuals in the cycle of poverty, crime and neglect. I agree that the local churches will have to step-up and practice what they preach, but change can only happen when we are willing to work with each man, woman and child as an individual, not as a group of people to be analysed and talked about. If we, as people who want change to happen, admit that for the most part, we have a lack of understanding of the people themselves who are going through the hardships of living at Parkside. Most of the comments given sound like the stuff repeated over and over again at social gatherings or when you are with your like-minded friends. Truth is, it is tough on those with money; it is stretched to the maximum with higher expenses across the board. How much harder do you imagine it to be for those trying to make it on way less money than those in the burbs. It is going to take all types of organizations and people and businesses of all income levels to make a positive change. But the people caught up in this, the ones that have the most to lose will have to learn to participate in their own blessing. Effort on the part of the giver and the reciever.
Uh, can someone please translate guesswho's responses into English for me? Is this what is known as "Ebonics" - just realllyyyyy reallly poor English? Do we need to bring back literacy tests? I honestly have not seen such insensible, illiterate chicken-scratch coming even from a 1st grade ESL immigrant. Seriously, how did you even pass 1st grade, lady? Or is this what black graduates of University High simply pass as?
furthermore helloutadodge,were you honestly need to be,1st of all you don't write no check for me,i might write the welare check for you and your family,and im speaking for all colors you the one got an racist problem maybe you need to go to a world were you can live in the 60s it itsnt happening in waco so maybe you do need to get the hell out of dodge
stop always crumbing people,sum people cant help were they live,be happy that a person can use all their 5 senses to know were to live.look at the news,it's drama with all colors and just because blacks live in low income apts.doesnt put a label on them to be talked about it is more than people of other color that also get special needs from the government.if sum whites feel that we look for handouts,live like roaches in filth and are nothing but convicts well whites should look at themseles again because they do unlively dangerous things that harms everyone,look at sum facts of your own and a person will know who really lives like that,Once again watch the news all over the world an one can judge for themselves to see if it all stands the same with ones living in any ethnic soceity of any parts of the world.the saying was "we will never have a black president",that changed, anything is possible in life so stop being critical and cherish your life while yo still a planet to live on
wtf: Hate to break it to you pa'tna... but my mom's crib is paid for in full and it is no where near a trailer park. The sad part is that low rent government supported fools like you are slowly surrounding her. She works so that America doesn't have to support her... maybe you ought to try it. By the way, I despise lazy people of all races...not just blacks. I have to get that out there, because before long... the racist comment will be coming. PLEASE!!!!! This story just happened to be about a predominantly black housing complex.
whomever,talking about that we roaches how do you know what we are evidently you must have them you got so much to say well let me tell you something,us blacks, i,m speaking for all,all white people think they can run,say and do what they want,well this is a new day and age accept that black people are here to stay.how you gone call us roaches an most of you white people voted for a roach.we run things now an i hope obama never leaves office.think about that,y'all learned the majority of knowing knowledge from roaches,i'd rather be calld a roach than the N word anyday at least we know what we are
These apartments hav ebeen aa haven for crime for years, no doubt. I would seriously try to find alternative homes as soon as possible but this needs to be torn down.
Send in ole Decluitt or is this his? Sounds to me like it is
Just face the facts, Waco is a poor place for a lot of different people. Hellouttadodge, I work for my living. The time of this post is about 2:24 am. I have more work done before 10am than you get done all day. While some of the problems of which you speak of in the black community are correct, sounds like you have some pent up anger left over from the 60's. I wasn't around during those years, but it's no use holding over a grudge from all those years.
Dale - In the 60s, 1/4 of Black babies were born to single baby mamas. Now, 3/4 are. Crime and every other bad stat has also shot accordingly way up. That's the real effect that giving Blacks more political power & welfare has had over the last 50 years. And it only keeps getting worse, as they keep gaining more and more power and everyone else is afraid to call out the big elephant in the middle of the room. Oh, it's "poverty," it's "racism," it's anything...but...the Black race/subculture that has a damn thing to do with it. Even though that is statistically the BIGGEST common denominator, by far! And until we square up and address THAT issue, nothing will get magically better. When you don't get the root of the problem, why would it?
So they should just keep sending the welfare money to the other 30% of white people in waco that get huh. The ones that are married claiming to be seperated from their spouses and later getting caught in the lie later. If they put those people out they should put them in the trailer park next-door tp your mom.
Our culture feels entitled to comfort and even wealth w/o even attempting to exchange a hard day's work for it. My mother is nearing retirement; she is a housekeeper at a local hospital. She has busted her butt for the last 20 yrs at this place. Her superiors are constantly taking advantage of her because those superiors fear the "race card" and don't want to call out the black workers who don't pull their weight. I witnessed this when I was working there while putting myself through college. The black workers abuse their breaks and mouth off to their superiors. Now I realize that not all poor black people can be lumped into this ugly group... yet there are far too many that live there at the Parkside Villages that do. Drop the attitude... be happy you have a job, respect people, and work hard. It will get you places in life. Believe it or not there are a ton of honest hard working citizens that would be happy to assist if you put your best foot forward and attempted to help yourself.
The lack of ethics and a sense of morality in all walks of life, but most especially in government. It spends our money without compunction, with absolutely no accountability, on much that we all, given the choice, could and would willingly do without. It lies, cheats, and deceives with an arrogant sense of entitlement and feels no loyalty to those it serves. We have allowed our elected officials to mold themselves after King George III, only they have done a better job of it than he did. It's time for the people clean house.
The most serious problem facing the U.S. is Jobs. Many of our problems, like the economy can be linked to allowing our jobs to be sent over seas or to looking the other way on illegal immigration, both of which created the declining wage scale & job shortage. This in turn has forced workers into great debt, because money doesn't go as far as it used to. How many households can still exist on a single income? The big multi-national Corporations now control our government. Our government legislators are no longer thinking about what is good for America and americans, but only about lining their pockets with money from big Corporations. One way to solve this problem is to get rid of any environmental, safety labor or other laws & regulations, which we have put on our own producers & manufacturers, unless all of our trading partners have to abide by the same laws & regulations. We can compete, if there is a level playing field!
helloutadodge, white flight began in Waco in 1972. Waco practically has no white middle class as they all live in the suburbs now. And yet, they continue to flee. Now from the suburbs to more distant areas of the county or to other counties. Somewhere along the last 10 years welfare went from a "hand up" back to a "hand out". I don't know why Waco attracts so many poor people. You would think they would get better welfare in the big cities instead of here. I don't have a problem with Sec 8 housing, but it is being absused not only by some people living in it, but by the companies who own it. HUD created this, so they need to stay involved in keeping it up and hold a company's feet to the fire to keep it that way. Any housing development should be safe, so if you have a criminal element there, it has to be eliminated. Otherwise, you wind up with all Sec 8 housing being a Parkside Village. Also, people should not be rewarded with more money when they are popping out kids they can't afford to raise. It's as if people are being paid to have kid farms. While I agree with MVP on some things, if wages were the real issue, the answer would be simple. If you can't make enough here to live on, you get a job somewhere else besides Waco that pays enough where you can. This has been going on decade after decade to the point I think poverty has become an a psychologically inbred trait in some families. The only way to break the cycle is to start with kids when they are young. Get rid of this psychological block they have in their head. Educate them whether they like it or not, and don't let them dropout of school. It seems as if a 5 year old can dropout today and no one blinks an eye. You can't solve the problem by starting from the top down. You have to start from the bottom going up.
'what about that single parent who has a degree, yet cannot afford a $600 month rent?' - Uh, conservative living teaches people to form solid, stable marriages and save up nest eggs for rainy days. Just like the children's parable about the ant & the grasshopper. As well as the Bible, and many other Old World traditions. Of course, liberals told people that all of this was "intolerant" & stupid - and if you followed their teachings, I guess you are too. You make your bed, you lay in it. Don't ask the conservative ant to bail the liberal grasshoppers out - AGAIN.
EVERYONE on this post has only been critical without providing a "solution". Reason being... "HARD TIMES HAVE NOT HIT YOUR DOOR...YET". Everyone which lives in low-income housing DID NOT ask to be there... what about that single parent who has a degree, yet cannot afford a $600 month rent? Or that person who recently became jobless... before you issue your childish IMMATURE ridicules; think... because you could end up on low income housing one day... we are in a recession...
Welfare checks: NO welfare to anyone with a criminal record. Also, anyone with kids must prove they are on semi-permanent BC before they get each additional check. Cuz someone already on welfare should NOT be pumping out anymore kids! If you can't afford the one you already got, you obviously can't afford anymore! And neither can the rest of us taxpayers! - BTW, Waco is currently 23% Black - nearly twice the national average. And pushing us close to the tipping point where White folks get sick of quietly funding the same unemployed, uninsured people robbing and raping them - and so finally just get the hell outta dodge (White Flight)! If that happens here, it's a point of no return and we might as well rename ourselves Detroit or Zimbabwe and boast about the highest unemployment, uninsured, single baby mama & violent crime rates in TX!!!
Well well. If it ain't Random/Ricky Bobby coming out of the woodwork. I don't really worry about anybody on these comment sections...Bench mvp, I'm okay with where I live. I can change addresses, but my skin color will remain the same. If a place is a ghettto, call it that. If people are abusing the system, fix the problem. My opinion is that the police know where the drugs are being sold. They may even know who is selling them. But as long as it doesn't make it into Woodway, Hewitt, China Spring in substantial numbers, they figure they are controlling the crime. If a person is able to work, they should be working. With that said, it's easy to get caught up in the minimum wage, low income repeat cycle. Affirmative action has its places.. Waco is definitely one of those places. Let it be known that all black folk don't drive around in a crown vic with blasting music. Also let it be known that Waco is majority white. Which should instinctively tell anybody which demographic leads the way in government assistance and crime. Some people who sit and talk about what needs to be done in order for a person to live a productive life aren't doing so great themselves. Some people finally attain a salary of $25 grand and think that they have become a great success story. Bottome line is that Waco and surrounding areas is becoming another Marlin,Tx in so many ways. Amanda gruss, nobody is required to go to a title loan place. People make a decision to go. I have seen them in Hewitt, Robinson, Waco..everywhere. I'm not saying people should live in filth. I'm saying that in many cases management takes their time to fix/clean up low income places simply because they feel like they have the tennants over a barrel. I have a fairly good life thank you..
Be quiet black people? what I,mean by this is. How many city council meetings have you attended this year or last year.We say we are soldiers in the army for Jesus Christ,then what happen to Love for our Brothers.We need to stop all the TALK. Stand up for what our fore Parents worked so hard for in this country. I, Love you one and all but we must get back to Love and Hard Work To Save Our People.Preachers,Teachers, Mothers and Fathers. Get Up Get Down To Work?
It's time for the government to get a "check system" in place for those who receive assistance. Way too many people out there abusing the system!
WOW MVP!!! Seems like there are more folks than I that see through your pathetic views. Try a new screen name!!! I'm sure we will all figure out who you are eventually. LOL!
Robert: Amen! This is an American tragedy. Those truly in need, are being abused greed. If there were better screening in place by the complex owners many of the lowlifes past and present wouldn't have been allowed to live there or even be on the premises. Yet the property owner's greed to take money from the federal government at the expense of safety and proper shelter/living conditions for the poor... is tragic. Maybe the owner(s) should be forced to live in those conditions. Unfortunately, this complex a lost cause. As a community, we have to help these folks think bigger than Parkside and move on with their lives.
Dragonslayer - mvp is apparently another ivory-tower liberal who constantly panhandles and makes excuses for low-income black hoods in Waco - yet chooses to live in lily-White Hewitt himself. He is a hypocrite to the core who just projects his own racial issues upon others. He never stops complaining about Whites or "racism," but has yet to utter a single complaint of the endless misbehavior of Blacks. He blames Middle Class & up taxpayers for all of their problems and keeps demanding more handouts from us. Despite all the welfare, affirmative action, insurance coverage & Section 8 housing we provide them (all to no avail). Like a broken record, he's hard to ignore...but just realize his song is outdated and in violation of public disturbance ordinances. So, you're not the only one here sick of his incessant, unfair whining. We all are.
amanda - Are you kidding me? Low-income Black tenants trash any place they live in by 3 months. That's why they're in Federal housing to begin with! You need Middle Class & upper folk to renovate their own places. So best thing to do is to stop feeding these roaches with welfare and building them roach motels with Sec 8 housing. You have to flush them out and give them no quarter, just like you would roaches in your own home. Last thing you want to do is feed them!
If this place has turned into another ghetto, as described, then it needs/has to be shut down, and bulldozed out of existance! It's Our taxes that have kept it going, and not proper managed/run/maintaned, so get rid of it!! Any people that are physically able, need to get jobs/go to work, the others that are not physically able(Seniors/Elderly) will get moved to better government subsidized housing, elsewhere, and out of this mess!! PERIOD!!! With the Old Waco High School Building being converted, plus the old Motel, there should be better places to live!
While there are some good people here obviously by the crime it is not all inclusive. And by not reporting them they make the situation worse and are just as guilty as the criminals them selves as they are enabling it to continue and somehow expect it to change. It's a long list of finger pointing as they are afraid of retaliation and the police don't have enough money to properly do their job well thanks to tight budgets (who would love nothing more than to go in and clean it up for good) to the wages in this town, etc etc etc. Simply put it will either be fixed and remain a place not to be after dark or condemned and be a heaven for druggies and crack heads but the criminals will have to live somewhere... and it will be YOUR neighborhoods they will be looking to move into. So on that note I say lets get out the duct tape. We all want ice cream and rain bows but it just doesn't work that way. It's a sad situation all around and a hard one to make as they have lots of consequences and repercussions for either side of the fence they decide to get on. In the end though I have a feeling the side that isn't losing $200k a year to a bad property they got stuck with will be the winning side.
one word: Bulldozer!
MVP so you are okay with people living in filth and plight and blaming someone else? The city wants to close all that area down so that they can feed the Baylor dream of a beautiful downtown that they have and the only way it will change is make it change instead of simulating racial discrimination MVP.... The Parkside should have had limits to living there not you live there and then get your daughter in. MVP you can't determine what is moot and my program is not in question here. I have a place to live and adequate housing without subsidy. We're talking about folks who downplay their income to pay twenty dollars a month and take the rest of the money and blow it off. Have you noticed all the title loan places and pawn shops, payday loans just designed to eradicate the little money that folks have. i used to think it was race but really folks is country and lazy and would have a clue if it was injected. MVP get a life.
Wow! Too bad Parkside wasn't watched as closely as those other blights on the city that were reported last month with those menceing broken outlit covers and gate that didn't quite close flush. It's good that inspectors go after places like that instead of places like Parkside that have broken windows, no heat, wide open vacants apartments, drug dealers, and such. The fact that Parkside has been like this for the last 20 years just goes to show these places really aren't as much touble as the places with the broken outlit covers. Great job HUD inspectors. Way to be on top of your jobs.
Thats y it's call tha hood or ghetto 90% like stay n ingnorant and don't want better 4 their lives but sell drugs and gangbang. Now if they really want help go 2 college and get a career and do something 2 better urselves don't wait on welfare or a free ride. I have been a single moter with 5 kids and have lived in tha projects 1 year and got on my feet and moved out, never went back..... L
It's the same wherever you go..... I lived in Austin for 8 years before moving back to Waco. Yes, the wages are higher in Austin...but, the cost of living is also A LOT higher than Waco. So, whoever was complaining before about 750 a month rent for a house I would stop complaining. LOL The same types of homes in Austin in a semi-decent area are anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 per month. The little wood A-frame houses that are mostly in north Waco go for 100,000 to half a million in central Austin. I think it is getting better here in Waco... .and yes, I feel that better paying jobs should come to Waco. But, that will only drive the cost of living up just like it does in Austin. It is the same everywhere...not just Waco. Austin has the same problem areas just like Waco does.... there are projects everywhere. I think what would help Waco is actually people with money, instead of moving out of Waco.... stay inside Waco and fix up the houses. You might have to beef up home security... LOL But, I think that is the only thing that will help Waco. People stay in Waco..take back the neighborhoods... make them safe again... that would beef up the city tax rolls and if we can get better paying jobs here... both would work hand in hand and the place would change.
Amnada gruss your comments are moot. Your answer is for people to go to Lowe's for a home improvement course. Do you have cable? How often do you get your hair done? How many packs a day do you smoke? How much do you spend a week at Bush's chicken? I would bet that I could find flaws in your program. Waco is no money trap. You sound like some republican campaigning for office.
Ann, seems to me that if it is known that a person has these assets that somebody in control is not doing their jobs by giving away more free stuff. I thought welfare was for people who temporarily needed a hand for whatever reason. Also, people define their "means" in different ways. Mine are a nice place to live and a good running car. A stylish one if possible, if not, whatever runs. If people rather go rent a pair a 24" rims rather than live in a nice place or a better neighborhood, thats them. Jobs don't pay enough here in Waco. There are two categories here. Poverty and not poverty. It knows no color either. Dragonslayer I don't know where this place is, so maybe I do need to check it out. Even so, some people are just trying to get by and just live where they can. If the police know they are dealing drugs outside then they ought to arrest the folks. You are right in your comments Nacho. I'm an open-minded fella and open to diversity, but when you see a certain demographic at every type of construction project, something is wrong with that picture. I said I was gonna go to some construction sites when I had time just to see if I could get hired. Just to see if a black man could get hired.
no one mentioned encouraging the tenants to learn to fix their own place up and have builders donate time it's our town and if they break that up it moves next door to you real soon cuz Shamrock Properties rents to anyone. I'd say either learn to fix it up or move. Lowe's gives free classes. Or move everyone out and turn it to condos it's in a great spot. who cares about money? People could live cheap if they didnt have cable and cell phones, nail appointments and hair weave, beer bills and marlboro breaks. Who hasn't money going out the window? waco is a money trap for poor people cua they bored.
Hi Ann, an individual, a single person, can easily live on $32,000 a year. If you are able to purchase a home you can get a much lower rate than if you rent. Yet if you have a family on a single income of $32,000.00 you will not be able to sustain a debt free life while renting in this area. To do so would put your families safety and security at risk. We live within our means. In fact we have cut spending in every possible area to dizzying levels. We do not live extravagantly. In fact the only way we can be more frugal is to eliminate necessities.Just paying our bills is not living. We also need to plan for our futures, and the futures of our children. That means income above our needs. We also have medical issues that will not pay for themselves. I believe that is a personal responsibility, not a government one. A livable wage needs to encompass all these areas. The employment of illegals only exasperates the issue.It keeps wages low. Our economy is market driven not government subsidized. If the market will sustain $8.50 then that is what employers will pay. The government has no place dictating the wages, If the market were based on legal employment the wages would be higher. Its that simple. The hordes of impoverished people in Waco, and in the country need an opportunity. The only way that will happen is if we, the responsible, give them that opportunity while weaning them off of the addiction to government subsidies. Welfare needs to be a rest stop on the way to success, not a homestead of entitlements.
One huge problem is the way people spend the money given to them by the government. It's amazing how 99% of the clients my company helps who are on welfare drive better vehicles than I will ever be able to drive, have fancy TVs, take expensive trips, have more alcohol than a liquor store, and the list goes on and on. It's time for the government to wake up and take care of those who really need the help!!
I am so tired of those complaining that jobs don't pay enough here in Waco. There is no reason an individual can't live off $32k a year. Many of us live on that little and have for years. It's called living within your means!!!
Hi MVP, You are right. Waco, and surrounding area businesses need to pay more. Unfortunately the market will not sustain it. We have a glut of unskilled American laborers who's jobs are currently occupied by glut of illegal immigrants. From dishwashers to construction workers, Waco, and Texas, is brimming with our hungry neighbors from the south. Americans, with families, living in Waco need more than $32,000.00 a year to live here. The rental market here is ridiculous. A 3 bed room. 2 bath house in a scuzzy part of town is $750.00 a month plus bills, and the houses are nasty. We rent. The area we live in is inhabited by a mix of Baylor students and families wanting something better. The rents here are $875.00 to over $1000.00 a month. I will tell you not even $42,000.00 a year is enough. Baylor students are happy to find multiple room homes away from campus at lower rents because campus rentals are even higher. Families trying to escape the blight in Waco will do whatever it takes to ensure their families safety, and better education. This drives the rental market to crazy levels. Then there is the issue of personal responsibility. 5 generations of the poverty mentality is not easily broken. The poverty mentality kept the children of Israel from entering the promised land. All the grownups that left Egypt had to die in the wilderness, yet it only took 1 generation to walk by faith to change that. It is time for area churches to "Man Up" and help a generation to escape the insanity. It is time to stop hiring illegals, make lower profits, and charge realistic rates for services, rates that reflect American sustainable wages, not illegal minimum wages. It is time to act like a people of God, not just pretend to be the people of God on Sunday.
This place give all low-income housing a bad name. This is what people associate ALL low-income with. Like the Waco High Lofts, there has been alot of negativity associated with it. I've been over there and I'm impressed, they aren't based on a person's income like I thought. The Villages and that place on Loop 340 and Highway 6 (Oak someting), the same thing, they take care of their properties that I can see. There is no excuse for letting things get as bad as they are at Parkside, but once place doesn't mean all of them are like that. I agree with MVP, Waco needs better paying jobs period. Waco needs to make the city more attractive to corporations, not just fast food establishments!
this complex has always been a haven for drug users, drug sellers, troublemakers and people that society could do without for more decades than I can count.I have seen the proof myself and have witnessed the above mentioned so it's not just speculation but proof and the arrest records at the police stations will back it up also.
The "broken window" theory certainly applies at this apartment complex. If a broken window is not replaced within a short period of time, other property maintenance violations, along with companion crime, appear and the domino syndrome occurs.
"Most Valuable Player", you better get your head out of your butt, drive by and look at the crack heads and drug dealers standing and sitting around this complex, if this is where you want your tax money to go that's fine, but I sure as hell don't want mine going there!!!!!!!!!
You know, a lot of people reading this story will probably say that the people who live there need to move and such. I can't speak about people's situations, but just seeing the low paying jobs here in Waco it's hard to get a leg up. Even if you earn a degree you are faced with a low paying job market in Waco. So a person is almost forced to leave the area...Some people(as in apartment management) at low income places think that they can treat people any kind of way. Typical Wacoans will say "but there is all kind of low income housing going up here". In my opinion, it's real easy to keep a person or a family in that low income cycle. Waco needs good paying jobs. I mean salaries of $32k and such and $15-$18 an hour to start. This $8.50 stuff just keeps people in poverty. I hope the IRS steps up in this case. The tax man doesn't play.
In My Opinion ...
2011 IN REVIEW
» News: Top Waco stories of the year
Database searches
Popular searches
- Waco area restaurant inspections
- Waco police arrest reports
- Waco police warrants
- Waco area marriages
- Waco area divorces
- Waco area foreclosures
- Waco bankruptcies
Buy, sell & more
Waco marketplace
- Boocoo auctions: Sell your stuff!
- WacoTribCars.com
- Jobs: Waco listings
- Real estate: Waco listings
- Buy & sell merchandise
- Classified ads for Waco
