The neglect that caused the federal government to pull the plug on the Parkside Village low-income apartments has turned into a free fall as residents abandon it in search of better housing.

High Johnson grass was going to seed in the courtyard of the 200-unit complex at 1323 N. Ninth St. on Friday morning. The sidewalks were strewn with shards from numerous broken windows. A couple of giggling toddlers sat unattended on a second-story breezeway, just above a trashed, empty unit where the ground-level window was wide-open.

The management office was shuttered, as it has been for most of the month. A sign directed tenants to drop off their rent at a complex across town and offered a phone number for maintenance issues.

Former Parkside Village resident Krystal Snyder is smiling at her new home with a front and back yard for her children to play in.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

From Parkside’s ghost-town appearance, it seems the majority of residents already have jumped ship, taking federal vouchers and relocating to apartments and houses all over town.

In July, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development cut off subsidies to the apartment complex after Parkside flunked several years worth of inspections. HUD began offering relocation vouchers to tenants.

The complex’s principal ownership partner, American Housing Foundation, was in bankruptcy and considered the complex a money-losing liability.

Since then, 126 households have received vouchers of 142 that applied, said Waco Housing Authority executive director Gary Moore, whose agency is handling the vouchers.

He said 47 families have relocated, and 20 more will move in the next few days. Another 27 families are waiting for inspections of Section 8 rental housing to be completed before they move in. Twenty-six still are searching for housing, and six have taken their vouchers outside Waco, Moore said.

“We’re ahead of schedule,” Moore said.

Life-changing move

For one of those tenants, Krystal Snyder, the move has been life-changing.

In June, Snyder, 24, was packing in anticipation of the July move-out. She said she witnessed two shootings at Parkside during her four years there and was afraid to let her children play outside.

Now she is living in a small three-bedroom brick house on Calumet Street in East Waco. Her children ride bikes and play with a Radio Flyer wagon in their fenced back yard. She beams when she talks about her new house.

“It’s great,” she said. “We have quiet people around us. I love the neighbors. I can let my kids outside and don’t have to worry about them.”

With the federal voucher, Snyder is paying only about $35 a month of her $650 rent, but she expects her share ultimately will increase because she has a job now at a day care center.

Snyder said her life got off-track a few years ago when her mother died, and living at Parkside didn’t help.

“I had no one to guide me in the right direction,” Snyder said. “Now I’m in my house, I’m working, and it’s quiet day and night. . . . Thank God I’m out of there. This is the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Deteriorating conditions

She said before she left Aug. 13, the condition of Parkside deteriorated.

“It was terrible,” she said. “The tub stopped up and the air conditioning didn’t work. Come on, even though you’re shutting down, you could at least come fix minor stuff.”

HUD regional multifamily hub director Mike Backman said it is unfortunate Parkside’s office has closed, but the owners are taking some positive steps.

He said Parkside Village Ltd. will board up the vacant units soon. Maintenance of the property remains the responsibility of the partnership, not HUD, he said.

An open window shows a room filled with trash and glass at the Parkside Village.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

The partnership defaulted on its federally insured mortgage this year, and HUD stepped in to pay it off. Backman said he expects HUD will foreclose on the property and try to market it for redevelopment, giving the city of Waco the right of first refusal.

City Manager Larry Groth said the city is interested in purchasing the property, with the intention of immediately reselling it to developers who would raze the buildings and replace them with mixed-income housing. But he said he still is waiting for HUD to put a price tag on the property before moving forward with the redevelopment idea.

Waco Community Development Corp. director Mike Stone said his organization might be willing to be part of the redevelopment effort.

“The main thing we were concerned about — giving those people a decent place to live — is being addressed,” he said. “Now HUD has to help long-term with what’s there. Empty, dilapidated buildings are not part of the solution.”

At Parkside Village Friday morning, a woman sitting in the shade of a stairway said only a handful of residents remain in the block of apartments that surrounds her.

“I’m moving out today,” said the woman, a five-year tenant who gave her name only as “Sherley.” She said she has had difficulty finding a place to rent because of the stigma of being a Parkside resident, but she finally found a single-family house in North Waco that she likes.

“I hate being out here,” she said. “Parkside wasn’t a bad place to stay, but what made Parkside bad was there was no security. . . . It’s not the residents, it’s the outsiders coming in here and causing trouble.”

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752

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