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

DATE: THURSDAY, October 6, 1994                   TAG: 9410110100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOUSING AUTHORITY MEETS GOAL

The Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority - which had been plagued with too many vacant apartments and no one willing to occupy them - has cut its housing vacancies in half.

In August, the authority launched ``Operation Full House,'' an effort to fight a public-housing vacancy dilemma with public relations, apartment spruce-ups and security-deposit waivers.

Then, 6 percent of the authority's 1,467 public housing apartments were vacant - considered high by housing-industry standards. When Operation Full House ended last month, the rate had dropped to 3 percent.

"We have not had a vacancy rate that low in 12 months," David Baldwin, the authority's director of housing, said Tuesday. "Three percent is a goal we've always strived to achieve. We never want to have a vacancy rate more than that."

Housing-authority employees volunteered 280 hours in a work blitz, quickly preparing apartments to be leased.

The authority marketed the apartments by placing advertisements in housing publications and fliers on car windshields.

The authority offered to waive the $75 security deposit for people who signed leases for Lincoln Terrace apartments or Melrose Towers efficiencies - two developments that had the highest number of vacancies.

Baldwin did not know how many new tenants took the authority up on the offer but said it "wasn't that large an amount."

The authority now is looking for ways to keep the project's momentum going and ensure that the vacancy rate doesn't creep too high again.

"We will be looking at making individual marketing programs that will emphasize certain features of certain sites," Baldwin said.

The authority also has applied for membership in the Roanoke Valley Apartment Association, an organization of apartment complex managers and landlords.

by CNB