SAVANNAH, Ga. \u2014 Blocks from where tourists stroll along the cobblestoned riverfront in this racially divided city, Detraya Gilliard made her way down the dark, ruptured sidewalks of Yamacraw Village, looking for her missing 15-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n
Like most other people living in one of the nation\u2019s oldest public housing projects, Gilliard endured the boarded-up buildings and mold-filled apartments because it was the only place she could afford.<\/p>\n
Without working streetlights in parts of Yamacraw, Gilliard relied on the crescent moon\u2019s glow to search for her daughter Desaray in May 2022. She passed yards dotted with clotheslines and power lines, and a broken-down playground littered with juice boxes and red Solo cups.<\/p>\n
\u201cI happened to look down, and I knew it was her by her feet, by the shoes she had on,\u201d Gilliard said. She was \u201cbarely hanging on and she was covered in blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
The year before Desaray died, President Joe Biden called for the federal government to spend tens of billions of dollars to fix dilapidated public housing that he said posed \u201ccritical life-safety concerns.\u201d The repairs, Biden said, would mostly help people of color, single mothers like Gilliard who work in low-income jobs, and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that $115 billion<\/a> is needed to fund a backlog of public housing repairs<\/a>. But, two years ago, money to fund those repairs became a casualty of negotiations between the Biden administration and congressional lawmakers over the Inflation Reduction Act. Republicans also have blocked efforts to lift 25-year-old<\/a> legislation that effectively prohibits the construction of additional public housing, despite the catastrophic public health consequences.<\/p>\n Tenants living in derelict housing<\/a> face conditions that contribute to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, asthma, violence, and other life-threatening risks.<\/p>\n The federal government has a long history<\/a> of discriminatory practices in public housing. In cities across the country after World War II, Black families were barred from many public housing complexes even as the government induced white people to leave them by offering single-family homes in the suburbs subsidized by the Federal Housing Administration. Starting with the Nixon administration<\/a>, lawmakers slowed investing in new public housing<\/a> as more Black families and other people of color became tenants.<\/p>\n Today \u201cresidents are facing really terrible choices, or terrible options about their future,\u201d said Sarah Saadian, senior vice president of policy<\/a> for the National Low Income Housing Coalition. \u201cWe got here from Congress really failing to live up to its responsibilities of ensuring that people have access to an affordable, stable home.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, an art deco luxury apartment building opened down the street. But little has changed in Yamacraw, which is filled with Black families.<\/p>\n Current and former tenants say the Housing Authority of Savannah, the agency that oversees Yamacraw, has ignored the mold, rats, and roaches that infest the units and sicken residents, and the bullet holes in windows and gunshots that ring through the night. Now they fear the city is using the poor state of Yamacraw as justification to push residents out.<\/p>\n In April, an inspection of Yamacraw apartments conducted by HUD, which oversees taxpayer-supported public housing nationwide, found 29 \u201clife-threatening\u201d deficiencies that pose a high risk of death to residents, according to a preliminary report.<\/p>\n The inspection cited 28 deficiencies it called \u201csevere,\u201d meaning they present a high risk of permanent disability, serious injury, or illness<\/a>. An additional 195 deficiencies were cited as \u201cmoderate\u201d because they could cause temporary harm or prompt a visit to a doctor.<\/p>\n Research links structural racism and disinvestment<\/a> to chronic gun violence, which has taken a heavy toll on Black neighborhoods and kids such as Desaray. A study of gun injuries in four large cities at the height of the covid-19 pandemic found that Black children were 100 times<\/a> as likely as white youths to suffer a firearm assault.<\/p>\n Study co-author Jonathan Jay, an assistant professor of community health sciences at Boston University, said <\/strong>most of the country\u2019s gun violence stems from disputes in neighborhoods that lack investment in housing and other public services<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about white privilege,\u201d Jay said. \u201cThe result is driven by racist policymaking.\u201d<\/p>\n Desaray Gilliard was a high school freshman when she was killed. She loved clothes, music, dancing, and the color pink, her mother said. She planned to go to Italy with her art class. She was excited about learning to drive and getting a job. Desaray had her sights set on attending Ohio State University.<\/p>\n They\u2019d lived in Yamacraw for seven years. The teen\u2019s shooting death remains unsolved.<\/p>\n Gilliard has struggled with thoughts of self-harm, she said. She maintains a memorial with pictures, stuffed animals, and flowers near the spot where she found Desaray\u2019s body.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to remember this is for her,\u201d she said of her middle child\u2019s death, \u201cbecause nobody else is doing these things for her to keep her memory alive.\u201d<\/p>\n A Broken Promise?<\/strong><\/p>\n Federally funded public housing must be kept in \u201cdecent, safe and sanitary<\/a>\u201d condition, according to HUD. In 2013, the agency\u2019s then secretary, Shaun Donovan, visited Savannah to announce a program<\/a> that could give the local housing authority millions of dollars to rehab four public housing complexes, including Yamacraw, which has been among the lowest-rated public housing complexes in Georgia.<\/p>\n The Rental Assistance Demonstration program<\/a> touted by Donovan did not provide new public money. Instead, it loosened rules to allow local officials to work with private lenders and developers to pay for repairs, transforming public housing complexes into mixed-income developments with Section 8 project-based rental assistance.<\/p>\n Last year, a consultants\u2019 report found a host of problems in Yamacraw, including water leaks and faulty wiring. \u201cThe Remaining Useful Life of the Property is estimated to be 0 years,\u201d the consultants wrote. The housing authority wants to demolish Yamacraw and replace it with homes that are \u201chealthier, more energy efficient and accessible,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n Yamacraw never saw the windfall Donovan promised, current and former tenants said. Even with a housing assistance waitlist<\/a> of more than 3,000 families in Savannah, records show most of the 315 apartments in Yamacraw sit empty, many with boarded-up doors and windows. Some other public housing developments in the area have been repaired or rebuilt, but except for new roofing added in 2019, Yamacraw has not had a significant renovation in years, according to the consultants\u2019 report.<\/p>\n Rather than repair the units, local officials started a process to tear down the complex, threatening to displace residents who have nowhere else to go in a city where the average two-bedroom apartment rents for more than $1,600 monthly.<\/p>\n Congress has provided less money than was needed over the past 20 years to fix Yamacraw and other public housing complexes nationwide, leaving local agencies in a tough spot, said Earline Davis, executive director of the Housing Authority of Savannah.<\/p>\n The housing authority still plans to demolish Yamacraw and redevelop the property with new affordable housing, she said. Residents fear that they will be pushed out, and that because of its prime location, the redevelopment plans would prioritize apartments that attract people who can afford higher rents.<\/p>\n \u201cAnytime you want to do something to make money \u2014 go destroy the historic Black community,\u201d said Georgia Benton, who grew up in Yamacraw. \u201cBut ain\u2019t nobody hollerin\u2019 \u2018Stop.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She and her son LaRay Benton have been fighting the housing authority\u2019s redevelopment plans, which they say could also disrupt the two-century-old First Bryan Baptist Church. Rev. Andrew Bryan, a former enslaved person and ordained minister, founded the church in 1788. He later bought his freedom.<\/p>\n The Bentons and three City Council members went door to door observing the condition of residents\u2019 units. They said plumbing issues caused sewage overflows and leaky faucets, mold tracked across the ceilings, and there were insect and rodent infestations.<\/p>\n Many families said they developed respiratory problems, such as bronchitis and asthma, after they moved in. \u201cIt is an unhealthy situation,\u201d LaRay Benton said.<\/p>\n About seven years ago, after his previous Savannah landlord raised the rent, Paris Snead, his wife, and two children found themselves homeless. A nonprofit helped them get into Yamacraw, where rent was $750 a month.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been years since they left. Snead said he still takes a daily allergy pill because he believes he was exposed to mold in his unit, which caused allergy-like symptoms.<\/p>\n \u201cThe walls sweat like working men,\u201d Snead said of his former apartment. \u201cThe walls will, literally, from the top to the bottom, leak water.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re homeless, and you want to be able to have a place for your kids, I mean, you\u2019ll make a home wherever you can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Snead said he showed Yamacraw\u2019s management the leaking walls, but they didn\u2019t act.<\/p>\n \u201cThe management team there did more to evict people and cause problems than they did to help families and ensure they had a place to stay,\u201d Snead said.<\/p>\n HUD, which conducts periodic inspections at public housing complexes, declined an interview request. The agency referred questions to the Housing Authority of Savannah.<\/p>\n The housing authority\u2019s redevelopment plans have been delayed by HUD\u2019s lengthy approval process, said Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson II, who appoints people to a five-member board of commissioners that helps oversee the city\u2019s public housing.<\/p>\n He said he met with HUD acting Secretary Adrianne Todman and other HUD officials about housing issues in Savannah.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t deserve to live like that,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n If Yamacraw is demolished and rebuilt, he said, current tenants will have a chance to return because the homes will be affordable to people with low incomes.<\/p>\n Nobody else is doing these things for her to keep her memory alive.<\/p>\n Detraya Gilliard<\/p>\n \u2018The Worst Experience of My Life\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Yamacraw\u2019s struggles are rooted in century-old policies that have made it difficult for many Black neighborhoods to thrive.<\/p>\n In the 1930s, the federal government\u2019s Home Owners\u2019 Loan Corp. made color-coded maps<\/a> for Savannah and 238 other cities and labeled redlined areas \u2014 usually places where Black people, Jews, immigrants, and Catholics lived \u2014 as undesirable for investment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe houses are occupied by the lowest class negro tenants,\u201d a government surveyor wrote.<\/p>\n Yamacraw was opened in 1941<\/a> as segregated public housing for Black people. Today a health clinic occupies the original administrative building, designed to look like a plantation house.<\/p>\n Despite its problems, Johnson said, some of the city\u2019s most prominent doctors, lawyers, and ministers grew up in Yamacraw.<\/p>\n Former and current tenants said the apartments slowly descended into disrepair.<\/p>\n Each year more than 10,000 public housing apartments<\/a> across the U.S. become uninhabitable.<\/p>\n Some lawmakers have used the poor state of public housing as justification to refuse lifting a moratorium passed during the Clinton administration<\/a> that prohibits the construction of additional units, even as the nation\u2019s rental prices \u2014 and evictions \u2014 soar.<\/p>\n The argument that public housing \u201cdoesn\u2019t work\u201d is disingenuous, said Saadian, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition.<\/p>\n \u201cThe federal government really failed to invest in public housing, to keep it in good condition, and to keep those communities thriving,\u201d Saadian said, \u201cand in many cases, actively contributed to those communities declining.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of repairing public housing and building more high-quality units, federal lawmakers promised to provide housing vouchers, commonly known as Section 8, which helps people with low incomes rent privately owned homes. But most people who qualify for vouchers never receive them. Those who do often struggle to find landlords who will accept them, rendering them sometimes worthless.<\/p>\n Three years ago, LaTonya Atterbury was living in hotels north of Atlanta when she was offered a unit in Yamacraw for $511 a month. In August 2021, she moved in with her niece, now 29, and her niece\u2019s son, now 8, relieved to have more stable housing.<\/p>\n But within the first week, she said, a neighbor\u2019s son broke her window and the housing authority charged her $60 to fix it. She said her bathroom is covered in mold and mildew. One day, months after she moved in, Atterbury noticed a hole in her second-story window and saw a bullet on the floor, and realized there had been a shooting overnight. No one was injured, she said, but the bullet hole was only recently fixed \u2014 about 2\u00bd years after the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been the worst experience of my life,\u201d Atterbury said. \u201cSitting here will make you very depressed.\u201d<\/p>\n Atterbury said she and other residents remain in Yamacraw at least in part because the housing authority has promised vouchers to move elsewhere. Three years later, she is still waiting.<\/p>\n Demolishing and rebuilding Yamacraw could take years.<\/p>\n Davis, the housing authority\u2019s executive director, said her agency has repeatedly told tenants they would be relocated to other public housing complexes or given a Section 8 voucher during construction if they have no lease violations. But residents say they routinely receive lease violations for harmless acts such as broken blinds. LaRay Benton said one resident was cited and fined $75 for leaving a stroller on her front porch while she took her baby inside.<\/p>\n A Mother\u2019s Search<\/strong><\/p>\n Researchers said that the presence of abandoned buildings can contribute to violent crime by making people feel unsafe and creating a sense of disorder. Studies suggest that razing abandoned buildings <\/a>and improving green space<\/a> can reduce it.<\/p>\n \u201cNo gun policy is going to work if we don\u2019t fix social infrastructure,\u201d said Jonathan Metzl<\/a>, director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. \u201cWe need investments to make sure communities feel safe. This is not just a public health problem. This is a race problem. This is a democracy problem.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, shooting victims or their relatives, including Desaray\u2019s mother, have filed at least three lawsuits against the Housing Authority of Savannah. Those ongoing lawsuits allege the agency failed to take added security measures in its public housing complexes \u2014 some of which had fallen into disrepair \u2014 despite gun violence and other crimes.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how we can prevent shootings,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n Davis declined to comment on the lawsuits. She would say only that her agency has installed cameras in Yamacraw, worked with police, and asked residents to report crime. The actions came after Desaray\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Johnson, Savannah\u2019s mayor, said police have investigated the Desaray Gilliard case, but there are people \u201cwho know what happened\u201d and will not talk to officers.<\/p>\n Around 9 p.m. on a Friday night two years ago, Gilliard went looking for her daughter for the second time that night. Desaray missed an 8 p.m. curfew and wasn\u2019t answering her phone.<\/p>\n Gilliard waited for about 30 minutes at a bench near a park in the middle of the complex, hoping Desaray would find her. Then she started to retrace her steps.<\/p>\n Gilliard called 911 after she saw her daughter\u2019s body.<\/p>\n When the police arrived, they made their way through the darkened complex with flashlights, Gilliard said. An officer pulled up Desaray\u2019s shirt and saw a bullet hole in her chest. Gilliard said she later learned from a funeral director that her daughter had been shot three times. She has yet to receive an autopsy report from the police.<\/p>\n Gilliard said \u201cnothing has changed before, since, or after\u201d her daughter\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been very difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes I wanted to give up. I even thought about committing suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n About a month after Desaray died, Gilliard said someone tried to break into her apartment. A couple of weeks later, her request to move to a new complex was finally granted and Gilliard left Yamacraw.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n