As plans for major redevelopment unfold a few blocks away, residents in a neighborhood just west of downtown Birmingham say they have been bypassed.

Several longtime residents of the Elyton Village public housing community are calling for action at their complex, saying years of promised improvements remain unmet.

“They’re not saying what they’re going to do, when they’re going to do it, or if they’re going to do it,” said Willine Body, longtime president of the Elyton Village residents’ council. “The housing authority is looking over the residents. They are doing what they want to do, and they are not communicating with the residents.”

Elyton Village sits across the street from Legion Field on the Graymont Avenue side. The stadium separates the area from neighboring Smithfield, including Smithfield Court, the centerpiece of a planned revitalization initiative generated by a $50 million federal grant.

Officials said the Choice Neighborhoods grant announced in July 2023 will help leverage $294 million in investment in the Graymont, Smithfield and College Hills neighborhoods — all just blocks from Elyton.

Residents at Elyton Village are concerned that their community will become an island of blight surrounded by new development as basic needs remain ignored and forgotten. Some apartment windows are boarded up, as is the abandoned community center.

Meagan Holland, the housing authority’s director of public relations, told AL.com that improvements to Elyton Village are included in long-term capital plans.

“The Housing Authority of the Birmingham District has a robust and ambitious redevelopment plan, Thrive 2035, that includes a redevelopment effort for each community and varies depending on a number of factors, like funding availability and each community’s individual needs,” Holland said in a statement. “Every redevelopment effort requires prior approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, including any effort to demolish the Elyton gym.”

Body said promises made spanning three executive directors have yet to come to fruition. Elyton Village, built in 1938, is Birmingham’s second oldest public housing community. Neighboring Smithfield Court is the oldest. Both communities are located in historic yet challenged neighborhoods.

A building next to Body’s resident office stands as a monument to longtime frustration over unmet promises. The community center and gym building remains boarded at the complex after a decade of stalled plans for renovation never came to fruition.

Now in its current deteriorated state, Body and others said it is time to demolish the blight and remove the unsightly and hazardous building. Residents said the building begins to emit an odor when the season changes and the summer heat arrives.

“I started complaining because the smell was reeking from that building,” Body said.

A smaller temporary version of the community center was closed last month, forcing youth and other residents to walk to Smithfield Court to use its community building.

“As it stands today, we don’t not have a community center,” said Lekisha Grayson, a resident since 2010. “This is all because they have not funded the modernization.”

Work crews last descended on Elyton in 2017 with major work that included new front porches and apartment renovations. Still, the exterior of other units appears untouched for decades with twisted and rusting metal awnings.

But the overall project was not fully completed, and twin two-story vacant buildings slated for demolition remain standing with rotted wooden boards remaining as covering for hollowed out windows and door fronts. Some of the boards have fallen off.

Holland said the housing authority has presented its long-term vision with residents and to each community’s resident council leadership.

The agency’s 2025 draft annual plan shows 12 Elyton Village buildings set for demolition, along with the gym. The plan is a draft that is under HUD review.

Holland said multiple factors, including costs, timelines, land and environmental elements affect redevelopment.

“Congress has significantly cut funding for public housing. As a result, for each effort in our Thrive 2035 framework, we are working to leverage HUD programs that allow for public/private partnership and therefore support HABD in leveraging private capital to carry out our repositioning,” she said.

Similar proposals for Elyton have appeared in previous housing authority plans going back several years and under the administrations of multiple directors.

“It seems like we are lost,” said Patricia Holt, a resident since 1985. “Respect is due to anybody.”

Dontrelle Foster, the president of the housing authority met with the community in recent weeks, Holland said.

“We aim to provide a number of opportunities for residents to share input with agency leadership, including monthly Resident Council meetings and our recent Public Hearing in March where we presented the HABD Annual and 5-Year Plan,” Holland said. “We will continue to communicate our plans and services to residents and create spaces for residents to share their questions, concerns and ideas.”

While Foster met and addressed resident concerns about a lack of dependable handicapped transportation using the agency’s bus fleet, residents said they are still in the dark when it comes to concrete talk about meaningful redevelopment or even upkeep for her community.

“They are not communicating anything as to what their plans are for us,” Body said. “Everyone deserves their piece of the pie, and Elyton is not getting any.”

The last building that was supposed to be a temporary community building has returned to its former use as a property management office. Still, Holland said community center services remain available for Elyton residents, albeit spread out. She compared that arrangement to services at other housing locations.

“Client services staff is working onsite in a vacant unit converted to provide services/programming,” she said. “We have multiple sites and external partners, like Girls Inc. at our Marks Village community, who also conduct business out of converted vacant units. Services are also available at our Smithfield Court community and transportation is provided to Elyton Village residents who wish to go there.”

Still, Grayson, an Elyton resident, summarized the frustration of her neighbors.

“They can do better,” she said.