GDPM ultimately plans to tear down and replace all of the 350 units in DeSoto Bass, which is Dayton’s oldest and largest public housing project.
Hilltop Homes
Just 27 of Hilltop Homes’ 150 housing units are still occupied, and GDPM is working to relocate the remaining residents, said Jennifer Heapy, CEO of the local public housing authority.
Hilltop residents have the option to move into other GDPM public housing properties or they can receive housing choice vouchers to use in the private rental market, she said.
Hilltop Homes, which was built in 1965, used to have 205 apartments, but GDPM demolished 55 housing units back in 2016.
The Hilltop apartments likely are obsolete based on their condition, location and other factors, says GDPM’s 2020-2025 plan submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Hilltop Homes is located along Groveland, McCabe and Haberer avenues in the Lakeview neighborhood, south of U.S. 35 and McCabe Park, and one mile west of the DeSoto Bass Courts public housing project. It is a collection of several small two-story buildings, many of them holding four to eight apartments.
Some other similarly designed buildings on surrounding streets are not part of GDPM’s Hilltop Homes.
Hilltop Homes apartments are outdated and have “inefficient” layouts and floor plans that do not meet the modern needs of residents, says the Renew Miami Chapel plan, which is a vision for multiple West Dayton neighborhoods, including Lakeview.
An architect is helping GDPM get ready to solicit bids to find a contractor to begin knocking down Hilltop’s empty apartment buildings, Heapy said.
Large dumpsters are parked outside some of Hilltop’s apartment buildings to prepare for when they are cleaned out.
Heapy says the Renew Miami Chapel plan — created over two years by GDPM, the city and CityWide Development Corp. — calls for extending the park-like setting around Lakeside lake and McCabe Park to the Hilltop Homes property, after the apartment buildings are removed.
The West Dayton Neighborhoods Vision, approved in early 2019, says that area could become a new preserve, with natural park and open space.
The Hilltop apartment buildings hopefully will be knocked down this summer or by early fall, said Kiya Patrick, vice president of strategic development with GDPM.
DeSoto Bass Courts
GDPM also is planning to demolish 84 aging apartment units in the DeSoto Bass Courts apartment complex.
DeSoto Bass, built in 1945, has about 350 units, and the demolition of nine buildings could take place this year or early 2025, Patrick said.
The public housing authority says it plans to redevelop all of DeSoto Bass in phases, and the first stage will result in the construction of 44 new townhomes onsite near Germantown Street and Danner Avenue.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Construction on this $15 million project could start this winter or possibly in early 2025 and the work is expected to take about 15 to 18 months to complete.
DeSoto Bass apartment units that are eliminated also will be replaced with apartments in a nearby but off-site project at 1520 Germantown St.
The $16 million Germantown Crossing development will offer 50 new multi-family apartments.
The project, at the former Day-Mont Behavioral Health Care property, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2025, Patrick said.
GDPM ultimately wants to compress the 45-acre DeSoto Bass site into a smaller footprint, and this means there would no longer be public housing apartment buildings south of Stewart Street, Patrick said.
Patrick said the full redevelopment of DeSoto Bass could take five to 10 years.
GDPM is waiting on approvals from HUD for the demolition activities for both Hilltop Homes and DeSoto Bass, Patrick said.
DeSoto Bass residents whose units are going to be torn down have been or will be moved to other unoccupied apartments in the complex.
These residents will be given priority access for the new housing units that are being built.
GDPM residents who must be relocated are moved to the top of the housing voucher waiting list or they can get special “tenant protection” vouchers that often are offered when public housing units need to be demolished, officials said.
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