What exactly is the PHA doing about crime and safety

There is a great deal of the crime happening in Peoria's housing projects (Taft Homes, RiverWest, Harrison Homes), Section 8 properties and scattered site housing areas. These are all housing types that are managed by the Peoria Housing Authority (PHA).

As we continue to hear about crime throughout the city on PHA property or involving PHA residents, I began to wonder what exactly is the PHA, as a management company, doing about crime to make the clients who do abide by the law safe. Are they going into their pockets to provide extra security? Are they updating their No Trespass List on the regular and expunging old information?

I went to the website, hoping to take a look at the minutes of the Peoria Housing Authority Board to see how they are currently addressing these issues. Unfortunately, the last minutes from a Peoria Housing Authority Board meeting published on the Internet are dated March 28, 2011. The minutes are shown at the bottom of this post, notice there is no mention of crime, security or safety, even though the following was happening at the time...

I took a look at the Trespass List after Elaine Hopkins posted about it and made the following observations: 

                         

Apparently there are names on the list of several people who are now deceased. There are names of people on the list who have children named after them - but there is no distinction as to age, or any descriptors other than M/B or F/B (black male or black female). The lack of updating of the list would seem to indicate that there is no dedicated knowledgeable security person working with the the Housing Authority.

Remember this article in the local newspaper talking about the Housing Authority buying security cameras? If they purchased security cameras, how come they aren't solving more of their own crimes? If they got the grant in October of 2010, they should have had the cameras in July of 2011 - how come they didn't have more information about exactly who had fireworks and was starting trouble?

What I did notice from the minutes of the Peoria Housing Authority Board is that there is a lot of discussion about getting money from the government and spending money (tax dollars), but there is little to no discussion about safety or quality of life of the people who reside on the properties.

Peoria Housing Authority Board Minutes

Anybody missing a baby?

It's alleged that last week in the Harrison Homes, a naked baby was found.

Because the people who found the baby know the neighborhood, they went door to door through Harrison looking for the mother. Unfortunately, no one had any idea what or who.

After going door to door and getting no answers, they called the police and turned the baby over.

To date, no parent has been located and no one has reported the incident in the news.

I'm sure finding the baby was upsetting and trying to locate the parents is a natural reaction, which is commendable, but IMO anybody who would let their baby wander off, doesn't deserve to have the child just handed back over to them.

Harrison Homes was HOT last night

Check this out...

Apparently there were two very large fights that popped off in the Harrison Homes Housing Project last night.

The first fight allegedly started with girls fighting over a cigarette, which escalated to a large group fight.

The second incident was allegedly when some white guy came down to buy some weed - he got his money taken and didn't get the drugs. So, the white guy left and came back with reinforcments (his crew). Again, a large fight broke out.

I'm told that Police had Montana and Trewyn streets blocked off for hours and the chaos continued well into the morning (3:00 a.m.). A check of the local newspaper's "police, fire and courts" page did not reveal any information regarding either incident.

What about Peoria Housing Authority (PHA) Security?
After talking to several people about the mythological thing referred to as "Peoria Housing Authority Security", not one person who I've talked to has EVER seen a PHA security person or a PHA security camera, or a PHA security car. So, that leads me to believe that there is no such thing as security in the PHA.

(click image to enlarge)

What's going on in the Taft Homes?

As the PHA directors win awards for "doing their jobs", many of the residents feel that the place has never been worse. I'm sure we all saw the recent reports of rats running rampant in Taft. They were so bad, there is no way an active management could have missed it.

From WMBD...
"Not more than ten steps into our visit at Taft Homes, we saw the evidence everywhere. A dead rat, holes under the porches, in the ground, and even in people's homes. A woman living at Taft Homes in Peoria called the WMBD newsroom looking for help. Rats were taking over her housing complex. Brenda Coleman said she had been telling management about the problem for months, but nothing happened. After our station told the Peoria Housing Authority what we saw, it got to work right away."

We also saw what has been described as "a large-scale illegal fireworks display in a housing complex adjacent to the state’s largest Fourth of July celebration" - another thing that an active management should have seen.

Did I say active management? Perhaps thats the problem, because you see, I have it from a reliable source that the PHA manager at Taft walked out earlier this summer and last week the replacement manager walked out and as of right now, there is NO ONE literally NO ONE, on the property managing it. The doors to the office were locked all last week.

After the Fourth of July debacle there was a lot of talk about increasing security in Taft Homes. Well, I guess they haven't done it yet, because I heard that Saturday night (July 30th), gun shots were being fired for about an hour straight and it was so bad, some residents wouldn't even go home. Wonder why that didn't make the pjstar.

While we are talking about guns, shooting and not making the news... I also heard that Friday night (July 29th), several guys were shooting in Harrison Homes.

SIDEBAR... whenever I see the words Harrison Homes, I think Harrison Street. Anyhow...

Funny, the last couple of days I was thinking things (i.e., shootings) seemed to have calmed down a bit (guess I was wrong). Unfortunately, I now have to rely on the "on the ground reports" from people in the hood to find out what is really going on in Peoria's housing projects.