THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406300582
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940630 LENGTH: NORFOLK
``I think we should be obviously on the forefront'' of welfare reform, Allen said after visiting the 422-unit Diggs Town community during a morning drizzle.
{REST} As for devising a plan, Allen is leaving that to the Governor's Commission on Citizen Empowerment, a 38-member panel he appointed this spring.
The commission's general goals, Allen said, are ``making sure that we have policies in Virginia that foster independence, that foster self-sufficiency.''
While here, Allen said he is ``100 percent'' behind Norfolk's application for a federal empowerment zone that could bring inner-city neighborhoods $100 million for a variety of job, education, housing and social programs.
Norfolk's main focus would be linking impoverished residents with good-paying jobs. The federal government will choose nine localities nationwide later this year.
``I think that the area and the vibrancy of Norfolk is very important,'' he said. ``It faces some real challenges with what we're facing in the defense (cutback) situation.''
Public housing residents who met Allen said they were pleased with the governor's visit but were eager to hear specifics of any welfare-reform plan.
Allen came to Diggs Town because the neighborhood is the site of several efforts to reform public housing as well as welfare.
The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority has spent nearly $18 million in federal money to make Diggs Town look more like a suburban townhouse development than a barracks-like apartment complex. Recently, the agency also capped rents at about $350 a month to allow working tenants to save money for moving into private homes.
Allen said he did not gain new insights from his visit but had some previous notions reinforced.
Among them, he said, was the desire of public housing residents to live in safe communities.
``It's not something I necessarily learned but it fortified, reemphasized the importance to me of public safety as the first and foremost responsibility of government,'' Allen said.
Allen also said he was reminded again of the ``frustration people have in getting off of welfare. When you hear it from a live person, it's not a statistic that you read in a newspaper.''
The governor referred several times to the story of Diggs Town resident Shirley Sherrill, who worked her way off welfare only to find herself deeper in debt because of student loans and escalating rent in public housing.
``That's why a lot of people cannot get off'' welfare, Sherrill, 37, told Allen.
``I want to own my own home,'' said Sherrill, a medical records assistant at the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. ``But I'm caught between a rock and a hard place.''
Sherrill also said she had to refuse child support from the father of one of her two children because the payments caused her rent to climb. The father of her other child has refused to contribute.
Allen said he sympathized. ``Here's a good, live person who tries to improve herself with an education. The rent goes up when she gets a job. They've got to pay off a student loan,'' he said. ``She has two children from two different fathers. Neither of the fathers are paying . . . So, in other words, the welfare system actually breaks up families. It's an example of how it fosters irresponsibility.''
Allen was accompanied by Secretary of Health and Human Resources Kay Coles James, who chairs the empowerment commission.
During their visit, Allen and James also stopped to see Hattie Anderson, 52, a disabled former shipyard worker.
Anderson said neighborhood crime was her greatest concern.
``Everything is nice. It's beautiful,'' she said of Diggs Town renovations. ``But if you can't sit on your front porch, there's no need to have a front porch.''
Anderson said she usually doesn't get excited over politicians, having been a poll worker several times. ``But today was something like I was being a teenager all over again, you know, like I had a date going out somewhere,'' she laughed. ``It made the day exciting.''
Allen and James said they hope to reform welfare without increasing costs.
But when asked about how to pay for support services such as day care, health care and transportation, Allen said making the inner-cities safer from crime was his main priority.
The support services? ``Well, we have to figure it all out,'' he said.
James said government will not necessarily be the entity to pay for them. She suggested that there may be creative ideas for businesses and churches to shoulder more of the burden.
Later, several business leaders who met with the empowerment commission expressed skepticism.
Some large employers may help but most businesses `` will be very much opposed to it,'' said George Middleton, chairman of Sentara Health Systems and owner of E.G. Middleton electrical contractors. ``It would be my best guess that a substantial number would not.''
{KEYWORDS} WELFARE REFORM
by CNB