ST. LOUIS — One morning at Hillvale Apartments, Tynnette Turner was up in her second-story unit, braiding her sister’s hair at the dining room table when a loud pop came from below. A sofa pillow near her 6-year-old daughter puffed up right at the same time, hit by a bullet.
“I don’t know if my kids were too loud, if they were bouncing,†said Turner, 38. “The gunshot came through the floor.â€
Turner said police responded more quickly than the two times she’s been burglarized at Hillvale, a federally subsidized complex in northwest ºüÀêÊÓƵ that’s about to be refurbished with the help of millions of dollars in tax incentives. She said the tenant below was evicted and later showed up on the news for an unrelated incident.
“I like my apartment, but you know, it’s just the people,†she said.
Then, as she looked past the bullet hole in the living room floor, more reality surfaced. The kitchen ceiling was partially fallen in from an old leak on the third level. Thick mold lined the shower. A towel was tightly tied around a pipe in the water heater closet.
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Though a November fire spread from a condemned unit in a different area of the 146-unit complex, spurring people to jump or be tossed from windows, there was only one working smoke alarm in Turner’s 3-bedroom apartment. Smoke alarms in communal hallways didn’t work either. Stairs led to a dank basement littered with trash and scat. Too many vagrants down there. Laundry is no longer available at Hillvale.
“It’s going to get better,†said Turner, who had heart surgery four years ago. “I always tell myself that.â€
A $34 million effort to overhaul Hillvale is supposed to start taking shape later this year. Including acquisition costs, that’s more than $230,000 a unit. A raft of federal, state and local assistance is being lined up for affiliates of Denver-based Steele Properties, which is in the process of buying the complex from current private ownership before redeveloping it. According to city records, incentives in the deal will include a tax-exempt bond up to $15.5 million, $15.7 million in low-income housing tax credits, or LIHTC funds, and $2.5 million from local and national housing trust funds. The city’s is expected to consider final approval of the bonds at its next meeting on May 12.
“This is what we do nationwide,†Justin Unger, development manager at Steele, said by telephone. “If you don’t have that allocation of resources, there’s really no way to get funding needed to successfully turn around a project like Hillvale.â€
There will be $12.2 million in work done to the 11-building complex at 5830 Selber Court, including the addition of a community building, according to Unger and a proposal on file with the state from Roanoke Construction, a local firm. That’s an average of $84,000 of work per apartment. Unger said each unit would be redone on a rolling basis that should take about two weeks each. He said a guard shack would be provided, at least during construction.
“Expanding affordable housing is critical for ºüÀêÊÓƵ working families,†Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said in a press release in late December, announcing plans to renovate Hillvale and six other complexes. “Addressing root causes of crime like housing instability will make ºüÀêÊÓƵ safer, and the resources my administration has procured will help increase the availability of affordable housing in our city.â€
Jones, celebrating her first year in office, campaigned on a promise to bring development dollars into north ºüÀêÊÓƵ, to share some of the wealth that has been splurged on the central corridor. But others doubted redoing Hillvale would be sustainable unless there are dramatic changes in crime, quality of life and opportunity in an area particularly slammed by disinvestment and dysfunction.
Jones held her victory party just down Goodfellow Boulevard from Hillvale, at a former United Auto Workers union hall now called the Omega Center. From 1954 to 1981, Chevrolet manufactured 700,000 Corvettes and other vehicles near Union Boulevard and Natural Bridge Avenue. Before GM moved to Kentucky for better incentives, the massive plant was a source of pride that directly and indirectly supported middle-class African American families for years, such as those at Hillvale, built in 1967.
A decade after the complex opened, a headline signaled struggles ahead: “Watchman Shoots Youth In Apartment Burglary.†Only today, there aren’t watchmen. Firearms and wild gunshots are part of the cadence of life.
“What we are seeing in the Hillvales of the world is the trickle-down of these larger economic forces that are moving jobs, investing in public infrastructure in the suburban fringe,†said John Hickey, who organized Hillvale tenants in the late 1980s when the complex was part of a national debate on fighting homelessness.
“Look at rural Missouri,†he added. “It’s not like north city is the only loser. As you disinvest, you get more social problems.â€
The latest city nuisance notice to Hillvale ticks off a host of violent offenses, disturbances and unruly behavior. Residents and others familiar with the complex say police don’t seem to show up anymore unless somebody is shot or lying dead on the ground. Since 2019, there have been more than 1,400 emergency calls for service logged with police from the area.
In an interview, Paul Dribin, a consultant and former multifamily housing director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, described the plan to renovate Hillvale as “putting good money after bad.â€
“In an ideal world with Hillvale, you would be better off demolishing it, or building a new project in a better location,†he said. Or, he said, give people vouchers or direct cash payments to spend on rent wherever they want.
LIHTC, the state and federal tax credit program, has its critics, but he said he wasn’t making a judgment on the program.
“If the goal is just improve housing for people, it’s OK. It’s expensive,†he said. “But if the goal is to improve communities and get people out of poverty, there are better ways to do that. At a minimum, you need to address health care and education and crime. It has to be a holistic kind of thing.â€
The redevelopment is supposed to include social service programs.
“Social service programs often don’t do anything,†said Dribin. “It’s often a lot of talk. It’s rhetoric.â€
When an affiliate of New Jersey-based purchased Hillvale in 2015, the firm vowed to upgrade building systems, modernize grounds, renovate apartments and add social service programs.
“Although current ownership has made significant investments into improving the property, the upcoming extensive rehabilitation will elevate the property to a new level and preserve the affordability for the long term, so that Hillvale can continue to provide quality subsidized housing to low-income tenants,†Abe Derhy, director of affordable housing for Treetop, said by email.
Treetop, which plans to turn over the property to Steele this summer, said Treetop invested about $2 million into the complex over the past seven years, including for new roofs, HVAC systems, parking lot repairs, flooring, appliances, hot water heaters, windows, main line plumbing and a new surveillance camera system. Asked about social service programs, he didn’t name any. Tenants confirmed none existed.
Tenants told stories about stolen air conditioners that took months or years to replace, if they were replaced at all. With gunshots being the norm, potholes, trash, broken smoke alarms and door locks weren’t as concerning as inconsistent mail service, sewage backups and infestations. There have been more than 200 official complaints to the city’s Citizens’ Service Bureau in the past decade, mainly for plumbing issues, roaches, bedbugs and mice.
Challenges go beyond the surrounding property line. The “Killer Mobil†is the nearest gas station, despite official name changes. Just past the site of the old Goody Goody Diner on Natural Bridge, where the Thunderbird Drive-In used to be, Budget Inn charges by the week, day, hour.
One section of the hotel, burned by fire, hasn’t been refurbished. City code enforcement officials pulled into the parking lot the other day to make sure each room had a working smoke detector. The owner didn’t show for the planned inspection. The owner didn’t respond to requests for comment from the Post-Dispatch.
What’s more, the city is using a large lot across the street — right next to Hillvale — as a temporary dumpsite for alley refuse and logs. During Mayor Lyda Krewson’s administration, the city used the same lot as a staging area to sort bricks from demolished houses.
“We already had a problem with mice, and it’s making it worse,†said Wanda Rogers, 51, a long-time Hillvale resident. “They should have asked us what we felt about it instead of just doing it.â€
A small group of houses hunker on top of a hill behind Hillvale. Cut off by railroad tracks, there is one way in and one way out on Hamilton Avenue, which, like a country road, is flooded in a low-lying area. Don McClendon, 49, a trucker and cook, has been living up there since July.
“They need security,†he said of Hillvale. “They are playing ‘Grand Theft Auto’ in the street.â€
He has four children but won’t let them play at nearby Barrett Brothers Park. While orange city trucks hauled rubbish from the nearby lot, others had dumped trash along the ditches. The wind blew it all around. A large tree was still laying across much of McClendon’s street since it fell from the yard of a vacant lot a few weeks ago.
“They give me all kinds of runaround,†he said of contacting the city. “This neighborhood is (messed) up.â€
Bella the cat
Gabby Lang, 22, is never going to forget her first apartment.
Gaps between the floors and walls of the ground-floor unit. Boarded bedroom windows. An orange extension cord ran from the living room to the refrigerator because kitchen outlets didn’t work. The sink had been clogged for months.
“They don’t come and fix nothing,†she said of Hillvale.
Her skinny kitty, Bella, is a mouser, but nowhere hungry enough.
“When I turn on the heat, you smell dead mice in the vents,†said Alphonso Lang, Gabby’s uncle, who also lives there. “That’s why I don’t turn on the furnace. That is why we have these little heaters.â€
Gabby doesn’t want her two children to stay at the apartment. Apart from the unsanitary conditions, she said, she was robbed inside her home at gunpoint not long ago. She said she reported the incident to police. She said there was no follow-up, no arrests.
“I don’t have anywhere to go,†she said. “I am trying to move. I am trying to find another place so my kids and me can be together.â€
Hillvale management told the Post-Dispatch that a new unit had been located for the Langs but maintenance was waiting for a new countertop to come in.
Records show that owners were getting $828 a month for 2-bedroom apartments and $1,016 a month for 3-bedroom apartments in 2020. That’s because nearly all units at Hillvale have been covered by a Project Based Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) Contract for years.
Depending on income, tenants pay a sliding scale of the rent and HUD pays the rest. Turner, who is on disability, said she pays about $130 a month. Lang, and others, don’t pay rent. They are paid to live there because they qualify for monthly utility assistance checks distributed through the front office.
Over time, various Hillvale owners have received millions of dollars through HAP contracts and subsidized mortgages. HUD paid current owners $8.4 million in direct rental subsidies between 2016 and 2021, an average of $1.4 million a year.
Dribin, the former HUD official, said HAP contracts are often sought after.
“It’s like gold for developers because they buy the building, make a lot money on fees developing it, and they have guaranteed rents,†he said. HUD can cancel the contracts, but he said doing so would risk putting people in the street.
The buck
“J±ð²õ³Ü²õ!â€
That’s what 22nd Ward Alderman Jeffrey Boyd said when told by a reporter about the rents.
He said Hillvale has been struggling since he started representing the area in 2003. He and a state representative wrote letters of support for the LIHTC credits that have been approved for the redevelopment, but he was floored by what is already being paid.
“Right now, you could not pay me to live in Hillvale,†he said.
He said the “over-concentration of poverty in one complex†is part of the problem, an issue the Missouri Housing Development Commission — the state entity that awards low-income housing tax credits — weighed after the police shooting of Michael Brown in an area of Ferguson where hundreds of tenants have to be poor to live there.
“When these people have social and economic challenges, they just live day to day,†Boyd said.
But that doesn’t always equate to poor living conditions, no social programs or working laundry. Boyd blamed HUD for letting things get out of hand at Hillvale.
Regional spokesman Brian Handshy said HUD is the final authority for the units covered by the HAP Contract, but that HUD hired MHDC to act on its behalf, including payment of rental subsidy requests from the owner and monitoring performance.
“MHDC will make sure it meets all the requirements,†Handshy said.
The most recent MHDC “management and occupancy†performance report on Hillvale was dated Oct. 3, 2018, according to documents provided through an open records request. The 14-page report rated the complex “below average.†Among the allegations: “many health and safety issues,†including litter and exposed wires “throughout,†90 stolen or damaged air conditioners, lack of follow-up on previously noted deficiencies and possible HUD assistance overpayments.
The last physical inspection report of the units and buildings was done June 18, 2019. According to a copy of the report, Hillvale scored 93 out of 100 points. An unnamed inspector, “certified by HUD,†sampled 17% of the units. HUD confirmed that it reviews the sampled results.
While both MHDC and HUD are involved with oversight of Hillvale, Boyd pointed at HUD.
“HUD is failing the tenants and the project. You have to do annual inspections because deferred maintenance could cost you more in the long run,†he said. “They can’t pass the buck. They are responsible.â€
His optimism for the redevelopment seemed tempered.
“If management doesn’t stay on top of things — maintenance and problem tenants — then it’s going to circle back around and be a place of chaos in five years,†he said.
Sin vs. Little Warriors
Hillvale is supposed to provide stable housing for poor folks, but at least one recent resident traded her space for a homeless shelter.
“I had to take a leap of faith,†said Tara Haley, 30. “I had to get out of there.â€
She showed pictures of a clean apartment. Look closer and mice droppings lined the edge of a new mattress. Two glue traps had seven mice stuck to them. A video revealed the discovery of a nest of hairless baby mice in a box of shoes.
Tara Haley said she kept a clean home but a mice infestation helped motivate her to move out of Hillvale Apartments last fall, into a homeless…
While living there, Haley said, both her young son and daughter broke out with skin infections. Her daughter, 1-year-old at the time, had a severe case, according to a photo. She was treated at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Children’s Hospital.
Haley said she told doctors about the situation at home.
“They said the mice could be nipping on her,†the mother recalled.
Last fall, she said, she checked into Gateway 180, a shelter for homeless families. Now she rents a home in Baden and recently started a job at a gas station. She still returns to her old neighborhood to drop her children off at Little Warriors Academy, a day care across the street from Hillvale.
There’s a bullet hole in the front door.
“The kids know to get down,†said Tess Trice, 50, who runs Little Warriors with her grown daughters.
She said she felt called by God to open her business there.
“These kids deserve an opportunity just like the kids in Ladue,†she said. “We are really trying to get them kindergarten-ready. They are sponges right now.â€
In addition to gunfire coming from Hillvale, there have been other challenges to her mission, particularly a burglar with the street name “Sin.†She showed photos and video surveillance of the man from a Jan. 31, 2019 incident. First you see an arm reaching through a window, toward a backdoor handle to gain entry.
“He took food that day,†she said. “He went straight to the kitchen.â€
She said he kept breaking in, not only stealing food but electronics and other items. She said police came multiple times. She said officers ultimately told her to shoot him.
Instead, Trice tracked him down, through her own research. She said he frequented Hillvale but was staying with a relative at a different complex across the street.
“He would stay anywhere he could lay his head,†she said of the homeless man.
One day, she and her daughters knocked on the door to confront Sin, to explain the burden he was causing.
“He denied it all the way until I gave him a hug,†she said.
Police told her it was a risky move, even if she had a gun. But she said Sin hasn’t broken in since. Little Warriors is thriving.
Originally posted at noon Friday, April 15.