THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409210412
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
A recent brush with a drive-by shooting has hardened City Councilman Herbert Collins' outlook on public housing.
``We have developed a subculture that's not acceptable,'' Collins said Tuesday. ``These people are the most underemployed, the most undereducated, the most underchurched, they are the most underdisciplined people in our society.''
Collins nearly got caught in a drive-by shooting in Diggs Town public housing in Campostella Thursday at about 10 a.m.
The councilman said he was sitting in his car on Vernon Drive, the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, when he heard shots about 200 feet away. Then he saw bystanders run and duck for cover.
Police could not verify Collins' statements about the drive-by shooting. Apparently no one was hurt and no one reported the incident, said spokesman Larry Hill.
However, Andrea Bear, spokeswoman for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said a clerk in the Diggs Town rental office recalls hearing gunfire Thursday morning.
Collins said he'd like to find a way to dismantle most of Norfolk's public housing and scatter the residents throughout Norfolk.
The councilman did not blame tenants for their problems. But he warned, ``that subculture is going to destroy the rest of us.''
Collins also urged appointment of a ``public housing czar'' to better focus public housing improvement programs.
He said the czar should be black because it would improve tenant perceptions about the housing authority. More than 98 percent of Norfolk's 11,000 public housing residents are black.
Collins made the comments in the wake of last week's suggestion from the Planning Commission that downtown public housing be upgraded to keep pace with downtown's multimillion dollar revival.
On Sept. 13, William L. Craig Jr., Planning Commission chairman, and the Rev. Anthony Paige, a commissioner, asked the council to study the future of downtown's three public housing neighborhoods - Tidewater Gardens,Young Terrace and Calvert Square.
They said the housing should be improved to help ensure the success of the $270 million MacArthur Center upscale shopping mall planned for downtown.
They also urged more social programs to help residents prepare for jobs and other opportunities.
Paige recommended that the city use Diggs Town as a model for the three downtown neighborhoods.
The housing authority is spending $17 million in federal funds to make Diggs Town look like a suburban townhouse community. Other efforts include experimental social, jobs and educational programs.
But Collins said he is not yet convinced about Diggs Town.
He said he will feel less safe when visiting public housing in the future, even in daylight. ``I won't venture out there at night,'' he said. ``There's a new mentality out there.''
As for the effect of social programs, Collins said, ``I don't see it. . . I think it's worse.''
``You see, it's a mentality that is involved in there, too,'' he said. ``Just like that shooting. That's no respect for property and people's lives. You can do all the upscaling you want to, but there's got to be a mentality with this thing . . . I think the answer is upscaling the mentality and the lifestyle.''
Collins made his comments during and immediately after a meeting of a committee dealing with downtown safety and environmental concerns.
Collins' comments about public housing were somewhat harsher than his remarks last week after the Planning Commission made its suggestion. Then, he agreed that downtown public housing needed upgrading but left open the possibility of dismantling the neighborhoods.
Collins said he is mindful of a federal law, passed in the 1980s, that forbids demolition of public housing unless an equal number of new units are built.
But he now thinks ``there's too much public housing.'' He also said families have become too entrenched, sometimes for three or four generations.
``These people need to be absorbed into the mainstream of this city. That's the only way they're going to grow.
``I find that black folks and white folks are afraid to talk about it, that it's very uncomfortable talking about it. Black folks don't want to deal with it but people have to do something about it.''
There were mixed reactions to Collins' remarks.
Bertha Reynolds, president of the Tidewater Gardens Resident Management Corp., a tenant group, said ``Herb is on the right track.''
Andrea Clark, president of the Diggs Town Resident Management Corp., agreed with creating more scattered-site public housing, rental and ownership.
But she was dismayed with some of Collins' characterizations, which she said fit popular misperceptions of public housing residents.
``I'm tired of people dumping. That's the easy part. I really want him to start focusing on solutions,'' she said.
David H. Rice, executive director of redevelopment and housing, said he did not understand Collins' suggestion for a ``public housing czar.''
``We have an assistant director and a whole department who do nothing but concentrate on uplifting people,'' he said.
Rice also listed many existing programs to encourage and public housing residents become homeowners or private-market renters.
Collins said he respects Rice's abilities ``but he has too much to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Herbert Collins, Norfolk councilman
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HOUSING by CNB