There is an eerie emptiness at Rhoads Terrace.
Photos by MELANIE BURFORD/DMN
One of Dallas' oldest, largest and most troubled public housing developments, its brick buildings are mostly vacant, giving the place the feel of an abandoned military barracks. And there is fear.
"I'm scared to leave my house," said Betty Roberts, a 20-year resident who worries about burglars preying on the handful of people left on her street.
Her fears are well-founded. Rhoads Terrace and a nearby sister property, Turner Courts, have been plagued for years by crime, extreme poverty and maintenance problems so severe that even families on a waiting list for subsidized housing have refused to live there. Dallas Area Rapid Transit once suspended bus service to Turner Courts after dark.
The severity of the problems has led the Dallas Housing Authority to decide that the best solution is to tear down both complexes and start over. The agency plans to move everyone out by the end of the month as apartments become available at its other properties.
To replace the complexes, the DHA plans less public housing and more single-family homes, plus town homes and apartments, in an effort to transform this long-neglected part of South Dallas known as Rochester Park and BonTon.
"We have a major stake in this community," said Troy Broussard, the DHA's interim director. "The renovation of our two sites will be a catalyst for change."
An area needing change
Change is sorely needed in the BonTon area, ironically located at one of the entrances to the idyllic Great Trinity Forest.
Residents are stuck in a geographic dead end bordered by two freeways and railroad tracks, with few job opportunities. There's little retail except a handful of convenience and liquor stores, and the area is filled with abandoned buildings and dilapidated single-family homes.
Poor planning placed high concentrations of poor people in an undesirable part of town. Of the 1,000 housing units here, 700 are public housing. The median household income of the public housing residents is $6,600 a year, according to the DHA.
Turner Courts and Rhoads Terrace are sprawling 1950s complexes of stark, deteriorating two-story red-brick and tan-siding apartments with clotheslines and air-conditioning units.
Residents say it's common to hear gunshots. Streetlights have been shot out. Thieves repeatedly have stolen copper from air-conditioning units at the complexes, and taken a computer, a TV and a security monitor from a Head Start center.
The more than 300 police reports filed at the two complexes over the past year detail assaults, thefts and drug activity.
In 2006, DART stopped bus service inside Turner Courts after dark out of concern for bus drivers' safety.
"People were throwing all kinds of things at the buses," spokesman Morgan Lyons said. He said DART reinstated the bus service in May and has not faced any major incidents since then.
The DHA says that it has beefed up security and that there have been no serious problems lately. Still, many of the elderly women and single mothers living at the complexes have relatives staying with them to keep safe.
After putting up with shootings and break-ins for a year, Rachel Lester moved out of Turner Courts and was happy to leave.
She said, "It's just no safe place for kids to be raised up at."
BonTon has seen a few signs of hope over the years.
Central Dallas Ministries opened a computer lab and after-school programs at Turner Courts and organized a neighborhood group.
Habitat for Humanity has built 60 single-family houses throughout the neighborhood and plans to add 73 more within five years.
And H.I.S. BridgeBuilders, another charity, offers services including a dental clinic.
"We're more excited about what God has planned for this community than we have ever been," said Roger Sappington, director of spiritual development. "We're seeing things begin to take place. That gives us great hope."
The DHA wants to pave the way for more positive change.
At Turner Courts, the agency plans to spend $65 million to build 220 apartments, 154 town homes and a teen center, and upgrade an existing recreation center.
The revitalization at Turner Courts and Rhoads Terrace also is part of a wider effort to upgrade the neighborhood, including a city plan for retail and housing.
Mixed feelings
For now, 130 residents still live at the complexes.
And despite the problems - and the promise - some residents say they have mixed feelings about leaving.
Maryann Johnson, 76, who has lived at Turner Courts for more than four decades, said she agrees the place should be torn down. But change is not easy for her and her husband, who have a large "Keep Out" sign on their front door.
"I hate to move," she said. "Really I do, because I'm so used to living down here."
