Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 12, 1993                   TAG: 9310120282
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

POLICE MORTGAGE PROGRAM OK'D

The idea is to persuade police officers to buy houses and live in neighborhoods troubled by crime, physical decay and social problems.

Roanoke will use financial incentives to help encourage police officers to settle in these neighborhoods.

City Council voted Monday night to offer interest-free second-mortgage loans to officers who will buy houses and live in any of nearly a dozen neighborhoods.

They are Belmont, Fallon Park, Gainsboro, Gilmer, Harrison Avenue, Highland Park, Hurt Park, Kenwood, Loudon, Melrose and Morningside.

The police homeowners program is patterned after one in Columbia, S.C.

The advantage to having police officers live in neighborhoods is that their presence helps make residents feel safer, city officials said.

The program is designed to strengthen the pride of home ownership while dealing with crime and blighted conditions.

City officials hope it will help create a feeling among residents that their neighborhoods are safe and that property maintenance is important.

City Manager Bob Herbert said the financial incentive will be a way to encourage police officers to live in the city, even though the city can't mandate it.

Councilman William White, who proposed last year that police officers be required to live in the city, said he likes the new program.

"It is a way to attack a problem," said White, adding he wants a report by the end of the fiscal year on the program's results.

This year, the General Assembly passed a law prohibiting localities from requiring that police officers and other public employees live within their boundaries.

Roanoke administrators said many police officers live outside the city because they can't afford to buy a house, or they fear reprisals against their families.

Roanoke faces housing problems similar to many other metropolitan areas, they said, with more rental property and fewer homeowners. In such an environment, property begins to deteriorate and residents feel unsafe.

\ IN OTHER ACTION\ ROANOKE CITY COUNCIL\ \ Habitat for Humanity request tabled: At the urging of Councilman James Harvey, council deferred action on a request to transfer title to a piece of property so Habitat for Humanity could build low-income homes on it. Council wants a report on how many houses Habitat has built in Salem, Vinton and Roanoke County. It also wants a report on the city's effort to encourage the development of middle- and upper-income housing. Harvey said Roanoke provides most of the low-income housing. If the city keeps adding low-income housing, he said, eventually there will be no one to pay the cost of government. Vice Mayor Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. said he shares Harvey's concerns, but he thinks Habitat does a good job. Harvey said he admires Habitat's work, but he is concerned about the broader issue of too much low-income housing in the city. Harvey said the city needs more middle- and upper-income housing to attract those who can pay taxes to finance city services.