{"id":5640,"date":"2022-07-21T14:52:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T14:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=5640"},"modified":"2022-07-21T14:52:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T14:52:18","slug":"area-leaders-address-greenbelt-place-apartments-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/21\/area-leaders-address-greenbelt-place-apartments-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Area Leaders Address Greenbelt Place Apartments Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Tina Butts, leader of the Movement, addresses press conference at Greenbelt Place<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Dawn Scotland<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Reporter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Thursday morning, July 14, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken and leader of The Movement Tina Butts, along with community leaders, held a press conference in front of Greenbelt Place Apartments to discuss the improvements of the once infamous apartment complex on Cherry Street.<\/p>\n

For decades, the Greenbelt Apartments have been synonymous with neglect, crime and violence. This year, through a collaboration with local government, grassroots movement and the owner, that narrative is starting to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions [at Greenbelt] were deplorable, said Gerken. \u201cThere were doors off the hallways, in the winter the wind would blow through, rodents would come in, there was always the problems of infestation of mice and roaches. We\u2019re trying to turn that around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improvements have been seen in the past 10 months. \u201cThe grass is cut, the doors are on, blinds have been replaced, new refrigerators come in everyday, it\u2019s clean<\/em> and people are now coming out to be with<\/em> each other rather than staying in and being afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not<\/em> perfect, it\u2019s only a start but we\u2019re pretty proud of the start,\u201d said Gerken.<\/p>\n

Last October (2021), there was a meeting at the One Government Center where issues were raised regarding the conditions of the Greenbelt Apartments. Members of local and federal governments, as well as the Toledo Police Department and other organizations took owner Rene Campos to task. The Greenbelt had been deemed a public nuisance by the City and had failed its U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) inspections scoring 36 out of 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat meeting started a process\u2026 this process is a national model that can get replicated, \u201csaid Gerken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been here every single day since that moment,\u201d said Tina Butts leader of the grassroots organization The Movement. \u201cEvery Monday thru Friday we\u2019re here 9-12 and 1- 4 pm.\u201d The Movement is an onsite resource aiding residents with the help they need. \u201cWe have built a strong relationship with the owner(s) and whatever we say that\u2019s needed –they make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to this joint effort, residents have received rental assistance, new furniture and improvements to their apartments. There are now also new community services at Greenbelt including Pathway, Lucas County Children\u2019s Services and Connecting Kids to Meals. Next week there will be a Job Fair for the residents at the complex \u2013Thursday July 21 at 10 a.m.-2 p.m. with Job 1 USA.<\/p>\n

Butts and the Movement encourage more community partners to get involved. \u201cThe people that have the resources in our community \u2013 get them in here!… We\u2019re here!\u201d charged Butts on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Deshawn Hutchings has been a resident at Greenbelt for over 30 years and has seen the change. \u201cThe improvement here \u2013 excellent\u2026 we still have our problems\u2026 but families are starting to bring their kids back.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said parents had taken their kids away because of the violence. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing to see more kids being able to enjoy playing outside\u2026. without your heart racing as soon as your child walks out the door.\u201d Hutchings noted that previously she wouldn\u2019t let her four-year-old goddaughter outside. She now lets her play at Greenbelt\u2019s playground. \u201cNow you can let your child out at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people that want to live here to live here, we don\u2019t want this to be a last resort for people\u2019s residence\u2026 we want this to be a choice,\u201d noted Gerken. There are opportunities for people to live in Greenbelt with more units being fixed.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Gerken, Greenbelt owner Rene Campos, The Movement and Greenbelt residents were there to applaud the progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe owner can\u2019t do this by himself remotely, he has to stayed engaged locally\u2026 the government can\u2019t do this from the outside. You can\u2019t have the county commissioners here going door to door \u2013 they don\u2019t trust us. You have to find a community partner that\u2019s well respected with results, as the Movement has {brought] that can create those kind of relationships,\u201d said Gerken.<\/p>\n

Gerken celebrated the work of the Movement and leader Tina Butts in Greenbelts Apartments during the press conference. \u201cThe reason this is a success today is because we reached out to the community. We couldn\u2019t do<\/em> this without the community. This is not the government\u2019s work that you see\u2026 this is government and owner support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue our fight, whether it\u2019s in the Greenbelts, the other side of town, the east side\u2026We\u2019re here to stay, \u201ccommented Butts.<\/p>\n

To join The Movement or become a community partner visit www.themovementteamlucascounty.com<\/a> or call 419-450-3325.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dawn Scotland The Truth Reporter Thursday morning, July 14, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken and leader of The Movement Tina Butts, along with community leaders, held a press conference in front of Greenbelt Place Apartments to discuss the improvements of the once infamous apartment complex on Cherry Street. For decades, the Greenbelt Apartments have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[131],"class_list":["post-5640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5642,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5640\/revisions\/5642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5640"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}