'Exercise in gaslighting': Crystal Towers advocates slam Winston-Salem housing authority CEO
As a committee of Winston-Salem officials and residents of the Crystal Towers public housing complex prepare to discuss the beleaguered facility's future on Monday, the head of the city's housing authority took a shot this week at community groups that have advocated on behalf of tenants.
"Based on my experience so far, these groups have contributed little besides creating division, tension and a false narrative," Ted Ortiviz, CEO of the authority (now called ASPIRE) wrote in an email to a representative of those organizations on Thursday.
The recipient of that message, the Rev. Paul Robeson Ford from Action4Equity Winston-Salem, pushed back Friday in similarly direct language.
"Mr. Ortiviz's response was outrageous, and it is indicative of the type of hostility that has characterized relationships between management and residents of Crystal Towers," said Ford, on behalf of his own organization as well as Crystal Towers United, Housing Justice Now and Thriving Together Forsyth, in an email to the Winston-Salem Journal.
The CEO's claim, Ford added, "is an exercise in gaslighting – trying to portray the residents who formed Crystal Towers United – and the supporters who came alongside them – as the enemy."
If not for that coalition, he suggested, Crystal Towers already would have been sold to a private developer and residents permanently displaced.
ANCHOR and ASPIRE
Ortiviz, in response to questions from Ford in an email Wednesday, noted that U.S. Housing and Urban Development regulations do not require ASPIRE to provide such information to advocacy groups but "as a professional courtesy, I have continued to engage" with those organizations.
The advisory committee will meet Monday to review a local nonprofit developer's proposal to buy Crystal Towers for $1, demolish the more than half-century-old high-rise and replace it with a "mixed-income affordable housing community" on the same site.
Current residents would be relocated during the project and given the opportunity to live in the redeveloped complex.
The Affordable North Carolina Housing Organization, or ANCHOR, laid out its plan in a letter of interest to ASPIRE, which has repeatedly told residents that Crystal Towers was not for sale.
Winston-Salem-based ANCHOR was the only potential partner to respond to ASPIRE's outreach to developers interested in rehabilitating or replacing the deteriorating complex, which serves senior citizens and disabled residents on West Sixth Street, at the edge of downtown.
In its latest assessment of Crystal Towers, released in November, ASPIRE estimated it would cost $40 million to adequately renovate the 201-unit facility, where residents have complained for years about what they consider unacceptable conditions, including insect infestations, cracked walls, standing water and a period when both elevators were out of service.
‘Deserve to live in humane housing'
The advisory committee is made up of ASPIRE Board of Commissioners Chairman Christopher Leak; board members Art Gibel, Dawnielle Grace and Walter Pitt; Winston-Salem Housing Director Michael Blair; and 10 Crystal Towers residents.
Monday's meeting will not be open to the public, Ortiviz told Ford in his email, "due to legal, financial, and real estate considerations."
He added that ASPIRE "will ensure that outcomes, recommendations, and opportunities for resident input are communicated clearly and in a timely manner."
Ford said Friday he was not convinced of the CEO's sincerity.
"Mr. Ortiviz should focus on ensuring that there is full transparency as this committee meets and determines the future of the people who live there," Ford said. "This coalition will continue to advocate based on the concerns that residents bring to us. They deserve to live in humane housing just like everyone else."
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 5:39 AM.