Community advocate Erica Williams has been trying for years to get help for residents of the Brannon Hill complex in DeKalb County. She has heard stories of families afraid of living in the area and of the unsafe conditions of their homes.
A man who is raising his grandchildren told Williams that he had been served an eviction notice and had 10 to 14 days to relocate. He buys Clorox every day to spray his apartment because mold has taken over and doesn’t want the children to get sick. A father of three told her he was worried every day going to work and leaving his family behind because of how unsafe the complex is.
“Fear is an understatement,” Williams said. “Fear of their lives, fear of what’s going to happen next, fear of the unknown, all fears on all levels is what they feel and breathe every single day.”
Williams said she wasn’t surprised when she heard about a shooting incident Sunday that left three people dead and three others sent to the hospital. For her, it’s become a common occurrence in the neighborhood.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
She, along with Ceasar Gaiters of Just About Blessing You, a local organization, and Envision Atlanta, a local ministry, try to come out every month to aid residents.
Throughout the complex, sinkholes have begun to form and trash can be seen throughout. In the back of the neighborhood, couches, mattresses and other trash have been left and accumulated over the years in what has basically become an illegal dumping ground.
Remains of a unit that was destroyed in a January fire have been left on the same spot for months. Williams, as part of a community task force that has been established to help residents at Brannon Hills, have been trying to get the area to get cleaned up.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
She said the task force has the equipment and everything ready to begin the process of picking up the accumulated trash but DeKalb County hasn’t helped. For weeks, Williams has been asking the county to waive the landfill costs for them to be able to remove the trash in the area.
“They know,” she said. “How many more people have to die in order for the county to move?”
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond said in a statement that he “has directed Police Chief Mirtha Ramos to allocate all necessary resources to investigate the deadly shootings at Brannon Hill Condominium on May 8 to bring those responsible to justice.” Thurmond’s office described the shooting as a senseless killing and stressed that the safety and lives of citizens is a responsibility the county’s leadership takes very seriously.
Gaiters said the county cares about what is happening at Brannon Hill. He believes with the recent shooting more action is going to come.
“Until something drastic happens in that community, it’s out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “It’s an obligation upon the county to do the bare minimum.”
In 2017 and 2019, the county was able to demolish buildings that had been deteriorated over the years but where those buildings once stood have become dumping grounds for trash and overgrown grass. Things might be bad but some resident don’t want to or can’t move.
“On the inside, they say their apartment is immaculate but, on the outside, it’s not,” she said. “We have to find a happy medium and, at this point, I don’t know that the happy medium exists.”
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
A Brannon Hill resident who wished to not be identified, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she has been living in and out of Brannon Hill for the past 15 years. She said the shooting on Sunday was just another day at Brannon Hill.
She said most of the people at the complex are good, family-oriented people, it’s just a few bad ones that bring the whole neighborhood down.
“I hope it becomes a better community for families, children, anybody that wants to live here. We just need a better community and a better chance,” she said
Williams, along with the community task force, has been working on a plan to help out Brannon Hill residents. The hope is to talk to the county about it and see if some of the things they want to do are feasible in the short term and long term.
Before any work can get done, Williams said it’s important to know and understand what the needs of each resident are, many of whom are refugees.
“We don’t have affordable housing in DeKalb County, let’s be real about it. What is affordable on your mind is not affordable in their minds,” she said. “We need to know what their needs are, we can’t assume anything at this point.”
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