Crime persisted at Macon’s Pendleton Homes in recent years. Why that’s changing
High crime rates at Pendleton Homes, an affordable housing complex operated by the Macon Housing Authority, have dropped in recent years, data from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office shows.
The complex at 3401 Houston Ave. has used monthly neighborhood watch meetings, established by the Macon Housing Authority in collaboration with the Sheriff’s Office, to reduce the likelihood of crime in the area. Pendleton Homes has experienced the most reported crime of all family housing complexes that the housing authority operates since 2020, but this year’s crime rate at the property is significantly lower than in recent years.
Pendleton Homes reported 28 crimes in 2020, followed by 22 in 2021 and 26 in 2022. After that, the community saw a steep drop-off: 14 crimes reported in 2023, 12 in 2024 and 17 in 2025.
Still, Pendleton Homes has reported 109 criminal incidents in that time. That’s nearly double any other number of crime reports from the Macon Housing Authority’s five other family living communities.
Bibb County deputies believe the reduction in crime is due to the residents avoiding fighting and regularly reporting suspicious activities to the sheriff’s office.
Cutting crime at a Macon housing community
Efforts to reduce crime at Pendleton Homes began during the COVID-19 pandemic and were sporadic, according to Mike Austin, CEO of the Macon Housing Authority.
Austin told The Telegraph that residents were encouraged to report suspicious activity they saw, and meetings regarding crime prevention only involved Macon Housing Authority officials. After the pandemic, law enforcement got more involved: Deputies were invited to meet residents and hear their concerns more regularly.
Now, such meetings are held monthly.
“The housing authority needs good people like you all to report suspicious activity,” said Judy Gordon, an employee with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, at a neighborhood watch meeting on Aug. 21. “And imma test you all right now... See something, hear something...”
“Say something!” residents of Pendleton Homes said in response.
Is crime common in public housing, or is that a ‘myth?’
Pendleton Homes, the housing authority’s oldest housing development, has experienced a total of 109 criminal incidents since 2020, according to data from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
- 49 aggravated assaults
- 40 residential burglaries
- 12 car break-ins
- Five street robberies
- One homicide
The one homicide relates to the death of Octavius Savon Nixon, who died on May 9, 2020, after being shot multiple times in the head and arm. Though the Macon Regional Crimestoppers requested the public’s assistance to locate someone allegedly connected to the incident, nothing came of it.
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the case remains active but declined to provide more details.
Austin told The Telegraph that “nine times out of 10, it’s someone’s guests” who commit crimes, not the residents themselves. Austin also said Houston Avenue experiences a high volume of crime. The Macon Housing Authority community that ranks second for reported crimes since 2020, Bowden Homes, is also on Houston Avenue. Bowden Homes has 59 reported criminal incidents since 2020.
“We’ve worked really, really, really hard on trying to make sure that ... people don’t associate ... affordable housing or public housing with crime, because it’s a myth,” Austin told The Telegraph. “It’s an absolute myth.”
A local food mart close to Pendleton Homes has presented crime issues, Austin said. The business, located at 3550 Houston Ave., was deemed a “nuisance” after multiple teenagers were shot and killed on the property, according to court documents. It was temporarily closed in 2022 by a court order, but a Bibb County judge allowed the food mart to reopen shortly after if it fixed issues that caused problems. Austin testified in court at the time in favor of closing down the business, saying that around 250 children under 18 years old living in Pendleton Homes were worried about crime on the other side of the street, which was “spilling over into our property,” he told The Telegraph.
The food mart has since closed, and the business is now empty.
How residents can combat assaults, burglaries
Though aggravated assaults, residential burglaries and car break-ins still occur at Pendleton Homes, Austin says crime has been effectively managed due to the high presence of cameras with advanced technology that can track license plates and faces. If someone commits a crime and is caught on video, it is easier to provide proof to law enforcement.
He also warns future residents ahead of time that he is an aggressive landlord who enforces a strict lease agreement, and he has a zero-tolerance policy for lease rule violations.
“Some landlords, unfortunately, are really lax when it comes to lease enforcement,” Austin said. “But we take the opposite approach. We’re going to spend the money, we’re going to go to court ... and we’re just not going to put up with it ... We let everybody know that on the front end.”
Austin acknowledged crime won’t be totally eliminated, but said his method of reducing crime in the area is to keep it out as much as he can. Through neighborhood watch meetings, such as the one that took place on Aug. 21, residents can share their concerns with deputies and learn crime prevention tools — though residents said during the Aug. 21 meeting they weren’t happy with deputies’ response times to the community.
Lt. Chris Dunn told residents they should be persistent with calls in order to encourage faster response.
“Don’t stop with one call,” Dunn said. “Don’t stop with two calls. Please ask for a supervisor.”
Dunn also told residents at Pendleton Homes that he doesn’t want them to worry too much about crime statistics in the affordable housing site because it “sometimes sound worse than they are.”
Dunn encouraged residents to look for better conflict resolution options to avoid physical altercations, as aggravated assault cases can often stem from straightforward disagreements.
Dunn also warned the residents that minors in Macon are breaking into people’s cars, and told them to remove valuables from their cars so they won’t lose anything or be targeted. He encouraged them to keep outside lights on at night, and to trigger their car alarm if they see someone trying to break into it. Dunn said residents should avoid altercations with potential suspects because incidents could escalate.
He gave an example to residents of a man who watched a teenager look into his SUV through the security cameras placed in front of his door. The teenager had smashed one of the windows, then walked off, according to Dunn. Though the man was mad at the teenager, he didn’t act on it and got his windows replaced.
“He said ‘you know what? I’m glad it didn’t lead to an altercation,’” Dunn told the residents. “Because a lot of times with altercations ... (kids) have guns in their hands ... (and) most of the time, they are very scared.
This story was originally published August 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
