Officials demand action after incidents at apartment complex

A police pursuit of a vehicle which ended in the Ironwood Apartments complex late last week caused concerns which rippled to not only the City Council meeting, but also the County Commission meeting as residents say they are terrified to live near the complex.

One night late last week, around 11 p.m., a law enforcement agency was in pursuit of a vehicle, which entered the City of Lebanon. The vehicle turned into the Ironwood complex where Lebanon Police were asked to assist and two individuals were apprehended after a brief foot chase after they attempted to flee from the vehicle.

LPD notified the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office that a third individual ran from the city’s jurisdiction into the county’s jurisdiction.

Residents say this is the third major incident which occurred in Ironwood, and they voiced their concerns to government officials regarding the safety of the neighborhoods.

“We have a situation in our district that is causing terror and fear in a lot of our senior adults and some folks who are even residents of the place called Ironwood that’s been built,” Glenn Denton, County Commissioner for District 20, said during their June 16 meeting. “One-hundred-eighty-six units built on a small ground that the city should have never allowed to be built, and since it’s been built, has been allowed to become Section 8, which originally was not supposed to.”

The Section 8 housing choice voucher program is provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and vouchers are managed by a local public housing agency (PHA). Vouchers are available to low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities. Housing that meets program requirements, such as a single-family home, townhouse or apartment are available for the vouchers.

“As a result, criminal element is finding some haven in there, coming in from other places, living there, bringing vouchers from Davidson County. Also, we’ve had several shootings, and I want to thank the Sheriff’s Department for being available to back-up [Lebanon Police],” Denton added. “I know it’s a burden on the Sheriff’s Department to have to utilize so much back-up. We probably had 20 different vehicles over there the other night. It’s a constant thing, it’s a daily thing. We’re trying to fight it, and I’m fighting it as a citizen, but that’s about all I can do. People are living in fear.”

The next day, Denton also addressed the City Council.

“Ironwood Apartments has become a crime zone for us,” he said. “I believe it’s a city problem, because it was city-created. Our seniors are afraid. Our parents with children are afraid. They wake up at night with flashlights in their windows and blue lights and red lights.”

He told the council that it’s “not just an every now and then thing, it’s a constant thing.”

“Murderers have been arrested there. There have been shootings there,” he said. “What I’m saying tonight is that it’s not safe for our people in our area to have to live like this at night. It’s hard to wake up at night for an 85-year-old woman…scared listening to someone say, ‘Don’t touch your gun, get away from it’ in the dark. That’s happening in our neighborhood on a regular basis.”

Denton then addressed Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell directly.

“And so I’m asking since this is a city-created problem, Mayor, I’m asking you, and with support the City Council can give, to let it be a city-created solution,” he said. “One of those things is Section 8. When it’s government-subsidized, we knew there’d be problems, and it turned into exactly what we thought in two years.”

A resident of a neighborhood adjacent to the Ironwood Complex, Dolores Denny, said she’s the 85-year-old woman Denton mentioned. She said she wants to live without fear of criminal activity impacting her neighborhood.

“So, Mr. Mayor, whatever you can do, this needs to be solved,” she said. “Whatever you can do, I would appreciate it, because it looks like if something’s not done, I’m going to have to find me another dwelling place, and I really don’t want to do that at my age.”

According to a resident on Bonnie Oaks, police came to that neighborhood on a pursuit to find runners from a traffic stop that was linked to Ironwood residents on a night last week around 11 p.m. She also asked when the owners and management of Ironwood will “be held accountable for problem residents.”

Lebanon Police Chief Mike Justice was asked by Mayor Bell and Ward 2 Councilor Geri Ashley to speak regarding incidents at the complex. He prepared a packet of crime statistics for not only the area near Ironwood, but the city as a whole.

“Any apartment complex is going to draw significant calls for service, I mean that’s just how it is,” he said. “People live in close proximity, no matter which apartment complex we talk about across the city is going to draw some additional calls.”

Justice said the department recorded “an uptick with Ironwood, pretty much right off the bat.”

“We brought this to the council’s attention that we’re having some problems and probably needed some help down the road,” he said. “We started to engage Ironwood’s management with concerns. We had what we thought was a pretty productive meeting the first time.”

According to Justice, although LPD thought the meeting was productive, the apartment complex has not fixed their front gate, originally giving officials a date of March 1 when it would be fixed. Ironwood management told WKRN News 2 in Nashville that they expect gate repairs to be completed in July.

Justice said many of the incidents do not involve Ironwood residents. A man fired a gun at another person at the Walmart on South Cumberland Street back in January. After a several-day search, the suspect was located at Ironwood. He did not live there, but was staying with someone who is a resident. In May, LPD received multiple reports of a possible shooting victim in the complex, which police say was a targeted robbery of two people from Nashville who were sitting in a vehicle in the Ironwood parking lot.

According to Justice, Ironwood management told him during that first meeting that the city “knew what it was getting when it voted to allow them to come.” Justice also said the Ironwood management told LPD they were not interested in any other meetings, and if police had concerns they could send an email.

As a result, LPD increased patrols in the area and Justice said the extra patrols resulted in a lower crime rate near Ironwood.

Mayor Bell took exception to Ironwood management’s reported comment of “the city knew what it was getting.” The Ironwood complex was approved before Bell took office for his first term. The development was presented to former Ward 2 Councilor Fred Burton “as a nice development,” which according to Bell, Burton was excited for, to bring further economic development to Ward 2.

Bell also said the day he took office, a letter on his desk said the city did not need to do anything regarding Ironwood, implying the complex’s management would attend to all matters.

Justice addressed the Section 8 concerns.

“The program that Ironwood operates under is not an ongoing HUD housing situation. When they built those apartments, they were afforded a tax incentive on the front end,” he said. “They accept vouchers if you go get a voucher. They don’t apply for them, you have to apply for your own and you just pay your rent. We were told [Tuesday] that our state office was going to look into the possibilities of starting an investigation.”

In order to keep their tax incentives, Ironwood has stipulations they must follow, one of which is that the apartment complex must “provide a secure facility or a safe facility.”

Justice also gave his opinion regarding the implication that Section 8 housing brings crime to a community.

“I will say I have to argue a little bit about the comment about Section 8 housing or low-income housing. I don’t agree with that. I don’t agree that it always brings problems. I think that’s a horrible comment,” Justice said. “You can look at some of our low-income housing in Lebanon. Our housing projects, our federal housing projects are some of the safest places in the city. The crime rate there is virtually [none].”

Crime statistics provided by LPD say that domestic violence calls there are down 59%. Accidents which occur in the vicinity of Ironwood are down 66%. Theft calls received inside the complex are down 50%. The warrant service in the complex is up 150%.

“So what that tells me is what we’re doing is working,” Justice said. “Our philosophy concerning Ironwood is if the management’s not going to do it, we can do it.”

Justice took a moment to explain the results of the department’s meeting with Walmart after the January shooting incident. Within a week of the meeting, malfunctioning parking lot lights were repaired. The retail chain implemented some management changes. Crime calls to the Walmart in Lebanon are down.

“I think it was because of some of the things we brought to light,” Justice said.

“It is what it is,” Bell said. “I know Councilor Ashley has been on this ever since she’s got elected. I appreciate all of her hard work, and I appreciate the hard work of Chief Justice and his department. [Ironwood] is an issue, we know it’s an issue, and Commissioner Denton, we don’t want anybody to live in terror as you said last night at the Commission meeting. So, we’re working hard on it every day, and I just want to assure everyone that’s happening.”

“I don’t know what the solution to Ironwood is, but I know a lot of times I wake up in the morning and I have text messages from people that live behind Ironwood that are terrified,” Ashley said.

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