In the summer of 2021, WPLN’s Metro Reporter Ambriehl Crutchfield had a source meeting with P.A.T.H.E. She had previously reported on the group’s demands on city officials to help tenants after eviction moratoriums ended, and on the issues that renters faced while accessing federal COVID-19 rental assistance money. The organizers now told Crutchfield that all 212 units of the Riverchase Apartments would need to be vacated by May 2022.
She then attended a meeting at the McFerrin Community Center to speak to residents. They were adamant that the Riverchase Apartments should be demolished because of their deterioration — even though they were concerned about the impact that being displaced would have on their social support and the financial barriers to relocating.
To understand how the apartments were able to deteriorate despite oversight, WPLN News requested federal Housing Choice Voucher Program inspections from the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency from 2016 to October 2021, the latest data at the time of the request. Crutchfield visited the MDHA office weekly for five months to review more than 1,600 reports on a computer and build a database to summarize their findings.
An analysis revealed that nearly half the time — more than 700 cases in five years — the units failed inspections. When property owners got a chance to fix the problem before reinspection, they mostly passed — but still failed a third of the time. (WPLN excluded some duplicate records and set aside more than 100 inspections that were marked as “inconclusive” or that left the pass/fail field blank.) The most common problems were electrical hazards and problems with ceilings, and there were more than 100 instances of infestation by rats, roaches or other pests. That data, along with interviews with tenants, officials, organizers and property management company Freeman Webb, formed the basis of the series.
WPLN’s Metro Reporter Ambriehl Crutchfield joined This Is Nashville on Tuesday, May 24, to discuss the Displaced series. You can listen to the conversation above or find the full episode here.
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