The 2019 murder of 9-year-old Brandoniya Bennett in her Old East Dallas apartment rattled the whole city.

The bubbly girl, a rising fourth grader, was watching TV on a summer day when a bullet struck her. She was killed by a man feuding with a fellow rapper. The shooter had attacked the wrong apartment at Roseland, a cluster of Dallas Housing Authority properties.

Brandoniya’s death was framed as a turning point. City leaders, including Mayor Eric Johnson, vowed that Dallas would tamp down violence. But as revealed by a Dallas Morning News investigation this month, city officials and DHA had already put together a plan that was supposed to improve security at Roseland, a dangerous, high-crime complex. The plan was signed in January 2018, long before Brandoniya’s killing.

Despite this plan, violence continued to terrorize residents at Roseland. The complex is quieter now that it’s undergoing a planned renovation that has led many residents to relocate. City Hall and DHA find themselves at another crossroads, and it’s worth examining what went wrong with the 2018 plan so they can prevent a downward spiral once Roseland fills up again.

As our colleagues Sue Ambrose and Chase Rogers reported, Roseland for years has recorded enough criminal activity to qualify for a designation as a “habitual criminal property,” which should have led to increased police oversight. But former City Manager T.C. Broadnax opted instead for a more cooperative arrangement with DHA. The agreement called for crime reduction plans, meetings between DHA and city and police officials as well as record-keeping.

Neither the city nor DHA hewed closely to the agreement and its accountability measures. A DHA attorney referred to the documentation mentioned in the agreement as more of a wish list. Whatever you want to call it, the agreement was plainly a failure.

Shootings continued. More than one drug house took root. DHA initially resisted city requests for information about its rent roll, lease violations, community rules and a towing policy. The reports and briefings specified in the agreement didn’t happen.

We believe city and DHA officials are genuine about their desire to make Roseland safer. Police investigated crimes in the complex and made arrests. DHA invested in infrastructure and hired a private security firm in 2024 that significantly improved safety at Roseland. However, that firm left the picture in June after it couldn’t come to terms with DHA.

Dallas City Hall wisely recognized the problems at Roseland, but it was too lax with DHA, and the agency was too reluctant to cooperate. If safety deteriorates at Roseland again, the city must be more assertive about deploying its oversight powers.

Many public housing properties across the country have failed because authorities allowed crime to fester. DHA should cooperate with Dallas police to identify and expel bad actors from its properties. The agency’s No. 1 job is to create a safe and dignified environment for the families that depend on its services.