Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 20, 1991 TAG: 9104200389
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Some residents of Lincoln Terrace have told council members they would like to rid the housing project of drug dealers. But under the eviction policy, they must be willing to testify against the offender - a risk many are not willing to take.
"I think there needs to be some new thinking on that," council member Bob Lynn said Friday.
"We're talking about life or death when you inform on people," he said. "It's not like in the old days when they would flatten your tires or smash out your windows."
But as Salem Police Chief and council member Harry Haskins pointed out, suspected drug dealers have the right to face their accusers. "All of us have that right to due process," he said.
The council met Friday with Herbert McBride, executive director of the city Redevelopment and Housing Authority, to follow up on concerns raised by Lincoln Terrace tenants at a meeting last month.
McBride told the council that in the past three years, 75 to 100 tenants have been evicted from the city's 10 housing projects because of drug activity.
Most of those came after tenants were convicted of drug offenses. Although residents say they want quicker action against people they know to be drug dealers, housing officials say they cannot act based solely on anonymous tips.
"You can have all the hearsay you want, but we need to have evidence," McBride said. Housing authorities do refer tips to the police for investigation, but McBride said that often takes longer than residents are willing to wait.
And even when drug dealers are evicted from public housing, McBride said, that often means the problem has not been solved - only moved.
"Yes, we need to deal with those we have in public housing," he said. "But we also need to deal with those 75 to 100 families that we're putting out in your neighborhoods."
Another concern raised by residents was that prospective tenants do not seem to be screened carefully enough before they are allowed to live in public housing.
McBride acknowledged that officials do not always conduct on-site inspections of an applicant's home, as residents said. But sometimes that's just not possible.
"How do you do an on-site visit when someone has all their furniture in the back of a pickup truck?"
At last month's meeting, residents of Lincoln Terrace told council members about having to live in the midst of drug dealing and violence.
But McBride said Friday that conditions at Lincoln Terrace are not as bad as publicity suggests. He said there have been similar problems at other projects that have not been reported by the media.
"Lincoln Terrace basically is not a bad place to live," he said. "The less publicity, the better off we would be."
by CNB