Student opinions differ on Stonegate fate
Some students are upset the Stonegate Villas apartment complex was purchased by the Fort Worth Housing Authority. Many are moving out, though a few have stayed.
By Jill Meninger
Staff Reporter

Andy McDowell broke his lease with Stonegate Villas after he learned the apartment complex will be turned into public housing.

The junior marketing major moved out in mid-July — even though his lease expired this month — fearing his black 2000 Ford F250 Superduty would be broken into.

“It has been a huge mistake,” McDowell said of the Fort Worth Housing Authority’s purchase of the Stonegate Villas at 2501 Oak Hill Circle.

McDowell is like several students who have moved out of the luxury apartment complex, which currently has 16 units devoted to families who receive federal Section 8 housing subsidies. To qualify, a family of three cannot earn more than $33,120 a year.

By Oct. 31, 58 units will be dedicated to low income families with approval of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Barbara Holston, executive director of the Fort Worth Housing Authority.

Many students, like Justin Little, are upset.

The new management was “not trying to accommodate the residents,” said Little, a junior entrepreneurial management major. “I left because I did not feel like it would be a safe environment.”

The Housing Authority bought the Villas in May after the downtown Ripley Arnold Apartment complex was sold to RadioShack so it could build a new corporate headquarters.

Because of federal guidelines, the Housing Authority cannot relocate public housing tenants in areas where minorities are more than 50 percent of the population. Under a deal the Housing Authority made with the Ripley Arnold Residents Association, tenants cannot be relocated to areas where the poverty level is greater than 30 percent, according to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Villas are located in a part of Fort Worth that meets that criteria.

“An objective in selling Ripley Arnold was to relocate families in areas where there was a diversity of income in the apartment property,” Holston said. She said there has been normal turnover at the Villas and there has not been a problem re-leasing apartments.

The Stonegate Villas management and corporate offices declined to comment.

Not every student is moving out.

“I’m not scared when I am walking in the parking lot at night or anything,” said Shannon Flood, a junior international marketing major.

Flood moved into the Villas Aug. 1. She said that she was annoyed because the management office did not tell her the Villas will be public housing, but she tries to put herself in the shoes of the new residents.

“They probably have read about the conflicts with the ordeal and they probably think that no one wants them at the Villas,” Flood said.