ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090060
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Clinton administration is awarding $716 million in 74 cities to demolish some of the nation's worst public housing and to build new homes designed to keep neighborhoods drug free.
``It is a national tragedy that any child, any family needs to live in the conditions that I have seen in Detroit and Philadelphia and Newark and the south side of Chicago,'' Henry Cisneros, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Tuesday in announcing the grants.
``It is wrong for taxpayer dollars to go into buildings that serve frequently as little more than operating bases for open-air drug markets,'' he said.
Nearly 17,000 units will be demolished and 4,000 new public housing units will be built in an attempt to create residential communities - smaller units with better security - to help revitalize surrounding neighborhoods, HUD officials said.
Since 1993, HUD has demolished 23,000 housing units and plans to demolish 100,000 by 2000.
About $477 million of the grants will pay for demolishing housing, refurbishing units, building new public housing and job training for residents.
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB