As president of the Waco Housing Authority, Milet Hopping wants to shake off the stigma clinging to East Waco’s Estella Maxey apartments, one of the city’s oldest and largest public housing complexes.
That means a complete reimagining of the complex of ‘50s-era brick homes, now called “Melody Grove.” The first of three phases of the transformation, costing $18.3 million, is nearly complete on Adams Street.
“I hope people drive by here and go, ‘Where is your public housing?’” Hopping told The Waco Bridge. “I want it to look like a neighborhood.”
A tour of Phase 1 last Wednesday showed that the renovation of the first 79 units passed muster with the street’s senior residents. The federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program financed the upgrades, including ADA-friendly units, in-unit washers and dryers, dishwashers in kitchens and a reconfiguration of floor plans to maximize space.
Residents picked Melody Grove’s new colors, too; a soft green, gray and an azure blue. “It has everything we need, everything, as far as I’m concerned,” said Sam Akers, as he lounged on his stoop, monitoring his pepper plants. Just outside his doorway a bluebonnet bloomed in a pot.
Albert Cromer, another senior resident on Adams Street, experienced his remodeled unit as an act of divine grace. “Lord gave me a blessing, man,” Cromer said. “I didn’t even know this was going to pop up like this.”
A partition that once bisected the kitchen and living room was gone now, which also opened up space for a queen-sized mattress in the bedroom.
“I never did sleep in my bedroom (before),” Cromer said. “I slept in my living room.” The larger mattress and a sectional couch were comfortably proportioned in the new floor plan.
Hopping, Waco Housing Authority staff and representatives from project developer Integrand, were welcoming city officials to a model unit down the street that morning.
“We kept the existing footprint, but we changed the interiors so that there’s wider doors for wheelchairs and people can stay independent much longer,” Hopping said in an interview.
She opened one of the new kitchen ovens and a crescent of onlookers craned their heads to peer inside.
“And there’s dishwashers,” said Melissa Johnson, WHA Director of Community Services. “We’ve never had dishwashers here.”
Melody Grove is moving to a mixed-income model, reserving about three-fourths of units for those making less than 30% of area median income and the remainder for those making below 60%.
Hopping said that Estella Maxey’s previous rent subsidy model was capped at 30% AMI, which put the housing authority in the position of denying homes to elderly applicants who were on fixed incomes but above the 30% threshold, sometimes by as little as a few dollars.
Demolition work for the project’s second phase has already begun on units between Bennett and Cantrell Streets. It will bring more significant changes than phase one, involving the full teardown of existing structures and their replacement with 70 townhomes. Initial cost estimates for phase two are set at $28 million, Hopping said. She referenced the new urbanist design philosophy of Disney World’s residential developments when describing the plan for Melody Grove’s evolution.
Right now, “it’s easy to isolate in your building and your unit,” Hopping said. “(Disney) created porches so people can talk to each other, get to know each other, and really create community.”
Like the upcoming Renaissance at Sanger Avenue development, front doors and shaded porches at Melody Grove will be directed inward toward a car-free green space.
Hopping anticipates Phase 2 to wrap up in the first quarter of 2028. More town homes and a new community center are planned for Phase 3.
The housing authority is still lining up funding for the third phase, and the previous phase will need to be finished to reduce displacement of existing residents during construction, Hopping said.
She’s particularly excited for the community center planned for the last phase. It will be named after Estella Maxey, the famed Waco vocalist, and in keeping with the singer’s legacy, is designed to promote art, music and community engagement.
“We hope to have an outdoor stage attached to the back, where kids will have talent shows and plays,” Hopping said. Baylor University has already donated several baby grand pianos for the center.
The center will also be the hub for supportive services for residents and will include dedicated space for nonprofits such as Transformation Waco, which already offers a youth mentorship program at the complex.
“All of those things become a fabric that ties together people living here,” Hopping said. “We hope that eventually eliminates the whole public housing image.”
