Residents at Turtle Creek voice support, concerns over impending development

MANSFIELD — James Hamner’s life changed for the better when he moved into an apartment at the Turtle Creek complex three years ago.

Before arriving at the all-senior living community, he was homeless for about a year. 

“When winter came it was terrible,” he recalled. “It doesn’t feel real good living in a garage where half the roof is missing and the windows are out and no door. I spent a lot of time in places like that.”

Hamner heard about the senior complex from a childhood friend who was living there. The friend and Hamner’s pastor wrote letters of recommendation for him. He filled out an application and was accepted within a week. 

“I was so happy. It was like God sent,” he said. 

The Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority (MMHA), which manages the 158-unit complex, is planning to construct additional affordable housing units on James Avenue.  

The new project will add 120 affordable housing units available to renters of any age. Seventy units will be two bedrooms; 50 will be three bedrooms.

Most of the units, 102, will be reserved for households earning 60 percent or less of the area’s average median income. The remaining 18 units will be rented to those making 30 percent or less of the average median income. 

Staff from the MMHA, along with an architect and developer hired for the project, met with residents on the Turtle Creek lawn Wednesday evening. Bob Chordar, president of TC Architects, and Michael Shae of Tober Developers provided information about the development.

Some residents, like Hamner, said they were happy about the addition. Others voiced concerns about increased traffic, resident safety and the potential for noise. 

Bob Reid, who moved to Turtle Creek five months ago, said he isn’t too fond of the idea. 

“We’re going to overbuild it I think,” he said. “I think we’re taking a lot of the beauty of the place, cutting the trees down.”

He’d prefer to see more housing development at the site of the West Park shopping center, rather than the dead-end street where he lives. 

Tina Thompson, a retired nanny, has lived at Turtle Creek for over a decade. She thinks it’s a good idea overall, but isn’t happy about the possibility of children living so close by. 

“I moved out here because there wasn’t no kids out here,” she said. “They’ve convinced themselves that kids ain’t going to come over this way. I know kids. They’re not going to stay back there.” 

MMHA director Steve Andrews told residents that the additional revenue from the buildings will allow the authority to hire two full-time staff at Turtle Creek. 

Those staff will be in charge of resident services and be able to intervene if new or existing residents violate their lease agreement by causing excessive noise or failing to control young children. 

“You as a tenant have a right to the peaceful enjoyment of your property,” he said. “If you’ve got a little kid who’s continually a problem and he’s hindering the peaceful enjoyment of the property for somebody else, it becomes a lease violation.”

Mona Besco is a children’s minister, so she’s not too worried about having new, much younger neighbors. 

Besco raised her children as a single mom and said she’s happy there will be more affordable apartments for families like her own. 

“I think it is going to be an asset for the city. There’s a lot of people that need that,” she said. 

“As long the parents are watching the children and making them aware that there are frail and older people here; I would not be able to stop a young child running at me.”

One resident asked why the housing authority wasn’t focusing its efforts on updating the existing units. 

Andrews said the MMHA plans to continue updating units on a case-by-case basis, but the need for new housing is paramount.

According to a recent housing study, Richland County will need 3,364 additional renter-occupied units to sustain its estimated population in 2032. The same study identified the development of affordable housing as one of the area’s most pressing short- to mid-term housing needs. 

“We are in an absolute desperate need for units on the market,” Andrews said.

“We also need to start changing the dynamic of the quality of housing, because if affordable housing starts looking fantastic, then all of the people who have these really rundown places can’t operate business the way they used to. That changes our entire community.” 

Hamner said he’d like to see some updates to his own unit, but overall he’s happy with his living experience.

“This is the only subsidized 55 and up that has the free utilities, cable and WiFi,” he said. “There’s no other places like this.”

The new three-story units will be walk-ups, meaning there won’t be elevators inside. They will have individual laundry hookups in each unit.

Unlike the senior apartments at Turtle Creek, utilities, cable and WiFi will not be included in the rent. 

“Those new units are going to be high quality,” Shae said. “They’re going to be environmentally-friendly. They’re going to have all the modern bells and whistles.”

Shae said the goal is to begin construction during the first quarter of 2024.

“You’ll probably see the first units available towards the end of next year,” he said. “They’ll continue to become available over the course of 2025.”