Iroquois Homes go down, and so does crime

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- It was a place with a reputation for being so dangerous that even Metro Police avoided going there alone. But recent changes to the Iroquois Housing Projects have helped reduce crime.

"We've lived here 26 years," says Jerry Carver, a neighbor. Carver has been waiting for this day for a long time -- a day when his neighborhood would be safe again. For years he has lived across the street from the Iroquois Housing Projects, and during that time he has seen it all.

"You could see drug deals going on down on the corner, you could see or hear the gunshots, you could actually see them shooting guns around here."

That all started to change a few years ago when The Metro Housing Authority started tearing down the buildings "It started improving right away," says Carver. "And when they took that corner out down there, that really ended it."

"Back in the day, Iroquois projects was one of the more dangerous projects," says Lt. Kit Steimle, with LMPD.

Lt. Steimle says Iroquois had a bad reputation but those days are gone. And he says there has been a significant decrease in crime. "We were down over 75 percent in homicides, we were down 28 percent in residential burglaries, 54 percent in aggravated assaults and 67 percent in street robberies."

"Just not a good place, good place to house people," says Tim Barry, Executive Director of the Metro Housing Authority.

Barry says right now there are no plans to rebuild anything on the now vacant land. "We are doing one-for-one replacements, so don't have to put anything in housing back on that land, so we're just sitting on it and waiting to see what happens down the road," says Barry.

Meanwhile, neighbors like Jerry Carver already have a pretty good idea what they'd like to see on the land. "I hope they build residential there; people that own their property is going to care about the neighborhood," says Carver.

Crews plan to take down the remaining few buildings in the next few weeks.