The apartments are in an area that the city has designated as a priority for investments through the Dayton Recovery Plan, which is the spending blueprint for $138 million in federal COVID relief funding.
“We are gravely concerned about the future condition of that site and its potential impact on the recent investments in the Miami Chapel and Edgemont neighborhoods,” said Kiya Patrick, vice president of strategic development with Greater Dayton Premier Management, which is the local public housing authority.
Bancroft Apartments
A company called Green Bancroft LLC purchased the property in 2019, according to Montgomery County Auditor records. Ohio Secretary of State business records indicate that Green Bancroft originally was registered by an out-of-state resident named Troy Green and then later by Arnold-Grounds Apartment Management, an apartment operator based in Texas. Arnold-Grounds did not return requests for comment.
City officials last month filed a misdemeanor housing code violation in Dayton Municipal Court against Green. Green could not be reached for comment.
Late last year, residents at the Bancroft Apartments received correspondence from HUD saying the agency was abating its Section 8 contract with the owner of the property. HUD said eligible residents would be provided with tenant protection housing vouchers and relocation assistance.
HUD ended its Section 8 housing assistance payment contract because apartment complex owners failed to address significant health and safety problems at the property, says a letter the federal agency sent residents last December that some people posted photos of online.
Bancroft residents were issued housing vouchers earlier this year, and GDPM helped relocate 52 families, with the last moving out in July, said Jennifer Heapy, the CEO of GDPM.
HUD for decades has provided rental subsidies for income-eligible tenants at the property, which is located at Danner Avenue and Bancroft Street at the western border of the Edgemont neighborhood. Bancroft Apartments, which once was called the Washington Arms Apartments, is directly across the street from the DeSoto Bass Courts, which is the largest and oldest public housing project in the Dayton region.
DeSoto Bass is in the Miami Chapel neighborhood. Miami Chapel and Edgemont are both high-poverty areas.
The Bancroft complex had 93 apartment units in two-story, garden- and townhome-style buildings.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
The Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance program subsidizes the rents of low-income individuals and families through contracts between HUD and private property owners, Heapy said.
Private owners enter into multi-year rental assistance agreements with HUD, and the owners are responsible for managing the Section 8 properties, she said. Section 8 units are subject to audits and periodic physical quality inspections by HUD, said Heapy, who noted that GDPM played no role in supervising the Bancroft property.
Heapy said GDPM shares community concerns about the vacant Bancroft complex, but the property is privately owned and GDPM has no legal authority to make improvements or take over management.
“That said, we remain ready to collaborate with the owner and community stakeholders to encourage a positive outcome for the neighborhood,” she said.
City officials say the city remains in contact with the property owner, and housing and inspection staff are monitoring and inspecting the site to ensure the buildings are secure and the owner is held accountable for the conditions.
Built in the late 1950s, the Bancroft apartments were mostly vacant by the early 1990s, and locals leaders at the time said the property was an eyesore that attracted crime, fires and other nuisance activities.
In the 1990s, HUD assigned Section 8 rental subsidies to the apartment property, and a California-based developer spent a couple million dollars to renovate the housing complex.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
New hope
After years of disinvestment, Edgemont and Miami Chapel now have a lot of activity going on, and the city has prioritized using some of its Dayton Recovery Plan money to invest in the neighborhoods.
A 50-unit apartment building called Germantown Crossing opened at 1520 Germantown St., which was a $16 million project. Boys & Girls Club of Dayton is spending millions of dollars to build a new home on West Stewart Street. Dayton Children’s is investing about $10 million to construct a pediatric urgent care at 1711 Germantown St., across from DeSoto Bass.
DeSoto Bass, which had 352 apartments, is being torn down and replaced with new housing. About 84 apartment units have already been removed, and 94 new apartments are under construction on the site. Some DeSoto Bass residents are relocating to Germantown Crossing.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Other semi-recent investments include the opening of a $31 million Five Rivers Health Centers campus in Edgemont and Economy Linen’s opening of an $18 million new facility in Miami Chapel.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Germantown Crossing in October, Dayton City Commissioner Chris Shaw said Germantown Crossing and other nearby projects are reenergizing a neighborhood that was economically depressed for a very long time.
“To see this transformation, it is just so inspiring,” he said.
HUD did not return a request for a comment for this story, but the agency has been impacted by the government shutdown.
About the Author
