Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311180188
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They gathered Wednesday for a housing conference sponsored by the Roanoke Regional Housing Network, a multi-jurisdictional forum and catalyst for the Roanoke area's housing interests.
One panel discussion focused on the findings of the Columbia, Md.-based Enterprise Foundation - hired by the network two years ago to conduct an assessment of Roanoke Valley housing.
The majority of the valley's federally subsidized and public housing is in Roanoke. The foundation found the lack of such housing in Roanoke County and Salem striking.
It recommended a regional approach to providing affordable housing. And based on panelists' comments Wednesday, there is a willingness to at least discuss such an endeavor.
"The city is interested in working with Roanoke County and Salem to look for ways to take a regional approach to this," said Dan Pollock, housing director for Roanoke. "The city can be just one player."
In Salem, little land is available Still, "the city is willing to enter into the recommendation that a committee have someone look at [affordable housing] as a regional issue," Yates said. for development. The city is 90 percent developed, said Joe Yates, Salem's director of planning and development.
Still, "the city is willing to enter into the recommendation that a committee have someone look at [affordable housing] as a regional issue," Yates said. "We are interested in regionalization."
So too, is Roanoke County, though historically it has not taken a major role in affordable housing, said Terry Harrington, the county's planning director.
The time is ripe for a regional approach, said Deborah Austin, legislative and policy director for the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C., and a keynote conference speaker.
Austin said there is a new understanding and emphasis at the federal level on "mobility strategies" - any effort that permits low-income citizens to be mobile with their subsidy, to avoid being "sentenced to live in the worst neighborhoods."
A federal budget amendment would provide for additional federally subsidized rental assistance just for such mobility, Austin said.
"Public housing has gotten a bum rap in the last 20 years," said Ted Edlich, executive director of Total Action Against Poverty and a member of the housing network's board of directors.
"Part of that is the explosion of the drug culture. The drug economy targeted low-income neighborhoods. That has been the real culprit, not the fact that a number of low-income people happen to live together."
by CNB