Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993 TAG: 9302090308
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOUSING-APPLICANT SCREENING SET
In an effort to curb crime and violence in Roanoke's public housing communities, the city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority will begin screening applicants by March 1 to see if they have a criminal record.The authority also will check to determine whether applicants have a history of disturbing neighbors or destroying property.
Neva Smith, executive director of the authority, said Monday that the office hours for taking applications also will be changed so her staff will have time to screen the applicants.
Applications will be received Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m to 7 p.m. to accommodate working families. They now are taken five days a week from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The new hours will free up the staff to check applicants.
The authority has a waiting list of nearly 550 applications for public housing, Smith said, so there is no need for the application office to be open five days a week.
"We have plenty of applications. That is no problem," she said. Some applicants have to wait six months to a year for a housing unit.
The authority manages 11 housing communities with 1,506 housing units.
Smith, who came to Roanoke recently from Hampton where she headed the housing authority, said many public housing agencies screen their applicants. Similar checks are made in Hampton, she said.
"It is a common practice. It's nothing out of the ordinary," Smith said.
Four years ago, Roanoke's authority adopted a tenant selection policy that authorized the agency to consider applicants' criminal records in addition to their financial records in paying their rent.
But the policy apparently never was implemented, Smith said. "We are just trying to enforce what is already on the books."
As part of the screening of applicants, the authority will create a resident selection committee that will work with the management staff to review the applicants.
Smith said approval of applications will be a joint decision by the committee and staff.
The authority's staff was working on the new screening system before last week's shooting that left one man wounded in the Lansdowne Park community, she said.
Smith said the new system will be accelerated because of the shooting.
Earl Saunders, a tenant selection supervisor for the authority, said the staff will hold meetings with the residents in public housing to review the terms of their leases.
The authority's Board of Commissioners traveled through Lansdowne Park on Monday on a tour of eight housing and urban renewal projects.
Carolyn Johnson, a commissioner who lives in Lincoln Terrace, said the screening will help keep out troublemakers, but added that some current occupants should be evicted. "We've got some bad people that we need to get out."