Green Doors Blog > The Fence
Green Doors
Green Doors transforms lives and neighborhoods for people in need in Central Texas. From our award-winning neighborhood revitalization projects to our flagship scattered-site transitional housing model, Green Doors' Opportunity-Based Housing Programs not only create affordable housing for low-income communities; they simultaneously create access to socio-economic opportunities – such as quality education, nutrition, transportation, and employment -- that might otherwise be out of reach. Green Doors owns 28 properties in Travis County and manages 50 housing rental assistance vouchers for low-income households in Travis, Williamson and Burnet Counties, housing nearly 400 people annually throughout Central Texas. The broad demographics of our residents reflect what it looks like to be at-risk of homelessness today: veterans, single-parent families, people with disabilities, and the working poor.
The Fence
I want to tell you a story not just about one of our properties, but about the tenacity of our staff and their dedication to our residents and community. When we first came to Pecan Springs Commons, it was a hotbed of criminal activity, a place no one felt safe. So in addition to renovating the buildings, we had to renovate the community. Our Deputy Director, Christa Noland, had a fence built between two properties that for decades served as the drug dealers’ path into the neighborhood cul-de-sac.
Overnight, the fence was torn down. The next morning, our Maintenance Manager repaired it. The next night the fence was torn down again. The following morning, he rebuilt it again.
They’d pull it down by hand. They’d attach it to a car with chains and drive away. They’d cut it with a saw. And every time they did, we rebuilt it. Immediately.
Our staff began to feel that if we could get the fence to stay up, we would win.
And then, one morning, the fence remained and we threw a mini party. Over time, it served its purpose and had driven out the drug dealers – partially as a literal barrier, but more importantly as a symbol of our commitment to the community. Eventually, the fence was taken down…intentionally, by the very people that built it time and time again. We like to think that’s how we do things. We stick to it. We stay with it. We work that way with our properties and we do that with our residents BECAUSE they and our communities are worth it.