“What we’ve found is that if the residents see us picking up during the week, they’ll police themselves on the weekends,” Johnson said.
“One of the things we’ve been trying to do for the last few years is to give public housing community sites like DeSoto Bass some curb appeal,” Johnson said. Apartments are periodically updated with new windows, air conditioners, flooring and paint.
“We want to make them look like places you would want to live,” Johnson said. “We want our tenants to have pride in their homes.”
Residents of DeSota Bass, the oldest and currently largest public housing complex in the area, say the Bass, as they call it, still has plenty of problems. They complain of frequent fights and occasional gunshots, for instance.
But Johnson said the housing authority has communicated to tenants a no-tolerance policy that has lessened incidences of violence and crime in an area with a long-standing reputation for lawlessness.
Lt. Larry Faulkner of the Dayton police declined to comment on whether DeSoto Bass offered the police unusual problems, but crime report statistics from the department give a sense of what police have investigated there since the late 1990s.
Overall, crime reports associated with the addresses in DeSoto Bass show the reported crime rate dipping significantly around 2003 and increasing slowly from 2006 to 2008.
A Dayton Daily News analysis of 2007 and 2008 statistics showed that DeSoto Bass had crime rates per household significantly higher than the city as a whole. The violent crime rate for the two years was more than 2 1/2 times that of the city. The non-violent crime rate was more than twice the city's.
The complex of 354 units had 199 violent crimes and 559 non-violent crimes reported during the two-year period.
The rates were approximately equal to the rest of the city in robbery, narcotics and burglary, and there were no records of prostitution-related offenses in DeSoto Bass since 1998. But assaults and aggravated assaults occurred at a rate per household about three times as high as the rest of the city. In addition, the complex has had five murders or non-negligent homicides since 1998.
Letitia Wallace said she has lived in the complex five years and often has problems with people running through the complex. “There’s always a fight jumping off,” she said.
Once she said a stray bullet came through her window, and on another occasion, a group of young men gathered on her doorstep to shoot dice and refused to move.
Ria Davis, though, said she’s lived in DeSoto Bass longer and has had fewer problems.
“I basically stay to myself and try to watch out for the kids who live around here,” Davis said.
Johnson said that 90 percent of the unacceptable behavior that goes on around DeSoto Bass can be traced not to tenants, but to visitors.
About three-fourths of the tenants depend on public assistance such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the rest receive Social Security, Social Security disability or pensions.
About two-thirds of the lease holders are women, and Johnson said trouble in the complex often comes from boyfriends, female friends and relatives, and people visiting residents’ teenaged children.
“We’ve communicated to all our tenants very clearly that they are responsible for the behavior of their visitors,” Johnson said. “If something happens at your unit, and you don’t control it, we will take action.”
Johnson said if police and housing authority can identify participants in a fight, the authority employs a no-tolerance policy. “We don’t care who started it or anything like that,” he said. “If you are a tenant involved in a fight, you will be evicted,” he said.
Non-tenants involved in fights are “trespassed,” he said. That means they can be arrested for re-entering DeSoto Bass or any other housing authority property.
Johnson acknowledged there has been a stigma attached to living in public housing for decades, and that includes DeSoto Bass.
Originally, though, DeSoto Bass Courts was built and opened in 1940 as housing for young black couples who were barred from renting in private apartments in other parts of the city.
Articles in The Dayton Forum, a black community newspaper of the time, lauded the construction as a breakthrough. The complex was named for the popular minister of a nearby black church, and all the streets were named for figures in black history such as Attucks and Wilberforce.
Tenants of DeSoto Bass still are almost all black; there are only 16 white and one American Indian lease holder in the 354 units, Johnson said.
The complex, despite complaints from its residents, is still extremely popular, Johnson said. Occupancy is currently at 98 percent.
“We’ve got a waiting list for DeSoto Bass and all our public housing sites,” Johnson said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395 or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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