THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200632
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 312 lines
DAVID H. RICE, executive director of the housing authority, tried sitting down after explaining his programs to the City Council last week.
The seat broke.
Symbolic of Norfolk's public housing?
Depends on the perspective.
``While society as a whole certainly has its major problems, there are even more severe problems with public housing. A lot of good things, though, are happening to bring about significant changes in Norfolk's public housing,'' said Doyle E. Hull, chairman of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
The positives, proudly listed by housing authority staff, include:
Transitional housing programs that help prepare residents for self-sufficiency on the private market.
Makeover of the 422-unit Diggs Town neighborhood so it resembles a townhouse community.
Emergence of resident management organizations that operate janitorial and lawn-care businesses.
Experimental programs to encourage family stability and upward mobility.
Creation of a youth council with members serving as role models for other youngsters.
Public and private partnerships for recreation, academic advancement and welfare reform.
Declining crime rates through more security, community policing programs and stronger eviction policies against drug dealers.
Management performance among the nation's best rated, scoring 95 percent this year.
Yet, public housing has high rates of one-parent families, school dropouts and unemployment.
Although the numbers are not known, there are many examples of families that remain in public housing for two or three generations.
Such entrenchment often prevents public housing from fulfilling one important role, that of being a way station for families needing temporary assistance.
In the last 1 1/2 years, the waiting list for public housing has ranged from 800 to 1,500. Some applicants wait up to four years.
And, while most residents are law-abiding citizens, public housing has a reputation as dangerous enclaves that threaten the entire city.
``We are primarily, and have been historically, providers of the housing stock,'' Rice said. ``We are not funded in tremendously big ways to run a lot of social programs or jobs progams or whatever. But we've been able to assemble quite a few resources in order to impact on that.''
Still, most Norfolk residents and many city officials paid little heed to public housing as other areas underwent revival.
In that context, the Planning Commission asked the City Council on Sept. 13 for greater focus on public housing.
One concern was the proximity of three public housing neighborhoods to the resurgent downtown, where Norfolk has invested millions of dollars on attractions such as Nauticus and plans greater expenditures for an upscale regional shopping mall, MacArthur Center.
The issue cut two ways.
Planning commissioners wanted to protect city investments, but they also sought to elevate the lives of public housing residents.
``We know that with these improvements, we're going to have to deal with some of the problem areas in the downtown area,'' said William L. Craig Jr., planning commission chairman. ``One of the things that we think will help deal with those is to improve the lot of the people who live in the downtown area.''
Commissioner Anthony Paige added: ``With the marshaling of resources . . . the right kind of creative energies and the cooperation of the community, those neighborhoods could be beautiful, attractive, safe, inviting.
``Visitors will see Norfolk not only as a place where there is a (Harbor Park) ballpark and there's a Nauticus and a (Marriott) hotel, but they will also see that there's a place where there's a balanced improvement of communities.''
Initial response was upbeat, in City Hall, and citywide, including public housing residents.
``If the city is now paying attention to what lives are like in those communities, that's a good start,'' said Charles Peek, outgoing president of the Norfolk Residents Organization, representing public housing.
Two weeks later, Councilman Herbert M. Collins Sr. started a furor.
He said he recently had come within 200 feet of a drive-by shooting in Diggs Town. He expressed his anger to a Downtown Norfolk Council committee working on improvements in the Church Street and Brambleton Avenue areas.
``We have developed a subculture that's not acceptable,'' Collins said. ``These people are the most underemployed, the most undereducated, the most underchurched, they are the most underdisciplined people in our society.''
He also said he was concerned that public housing was not producing as many professionals, such as judges, lawyers, educators and doctors, as the neighborhoods once did.
Collins said was not blaming public housing residents for their problems. ``I don't know who is at fault, but I want to find out what's going on.''
He also joined Councilman W. Randy Wright in suggesting that all options be considered, including razing some public housing. Collins said he woul like the replacement homes to be scattered citywide.
Perhaps it was the combination of Collins' harsh description of public housing residents and his willingness to study demolition. Tenants angrily denounced him.
The tempest over Collins' statements spilled into the Oct. 11 City Council meeting, diverting members' attention from a discussion about public housing policy.
The council had requested the housing commissioners and staff to explain its programs. But when David Rice left the podium, council members debated Collins' remarks.
Then, Shirley Freeman, the only public housing resident on the authority's seven-member commission, chastised the council for not knowing the agency's programs.
A few days later, Commissioner George W.C. Brown Jr. added: ``I really wasn't pleased with the meeting. I didn't think it really accomplished anything.''
Brown said he had hoped for an in-depth discussion on programs and future policies.
``Several members of the council were rather emotional,'' Mayor Paul D. Fraim acknowledged. ``I think that has to work its way out. People are trying to stake out positions.''
Fraim said the council still plans to have productive discussions about public housing.
The mayor also agreed with Rice that the housing authority alone cannot solve public housing problems. ``They're not the policy setters,'' he said. ``They really need for elected officials to share their vision with them about what their goals are for public housing.''
Many tenants concur, saying that they, too, are looking for direction from City Hall.
``It is not NRHA, it's the system itself. Welfare. The federal government,'' said Evelyn Powell Porter, a longtime leader in Tidewater Gardens. ``Believe it or not, a mother cannot get assistance if she's with her husband. The husband has to leave. This is why a lot of families have been divided.''
Tenants have an important role.
``They've got to take on responsibility. I think they're doing that,'' Rice said. ``It's also evident that these things need to change from the inside out. They can't change from the top down. They can't change because somebody tells them they have to.
``Neighborhoods have to organize themselves. They have to take the responsibility to do it. I think we're beginning to see some of that.''
The city, Fraim said, must have full coordination among its agencies, including Social Services, the School Board, police, the health department and parks and recreation.
``The point is not how the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority is doing,'' he said. ``The point is: Are we all doing all we can for the residents of public housing to break this cycle of poverty and reintroduce them into society at large?
``Breaking these cycles of poverty will probably be as important as anything we've ever done.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
This is the view from the front of a set of apartments at Roberts
Village.
And this is how the apartments at Diggs Town now look, with the new
porches and picket fences.
Staff graphic by MAL THORNHILL
This map shows the location of Norfolk's public housing
neighborhoods.
Graphics
NORFOLK'S PUBLIC HOUSING & SECTION 8 POPULATIONS
Resident Public Waiting list
characteristics housing (Public housing) Section
8*
Blacks 99 percent 97 percent 93
percent
Whites 1 percent 3 percent 7
percent
Other --- 1 percent 3
percent
Families headed by a single female99 percent95 percent 95
percent
Elderly & disabled 31 percent 18 percent 27
percent
Employed 25 percent 23 percent 35
percent
Receive welfare 44 percent 47 percent 42
percent
Average age/head of household 38 not
43 (excludes elderly) available
Total population 10,086 --- 5,436
Total families 3,474 814 1,812
(under lease)
Average family size 3 3 3
Average annual family income $6,577 $5,860
$7,525
Average annual earned income $7,578 $8,340
$8,757
Average monthly rent $124 $99 $195
(projected)
Total applicants N/A 814 4,002
* Section 8 is a rent-subsidy program
Source: Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority
INITIATIVES
The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority already is
experimenting with ideas to improve public housing neighborhoods and
help residents move to private-market homes.
Most touted is the revamped Diggs Town neighborhood where more
than $17 million in federal funds were spent on remodeling.
Also, the agency has joined with Social Services and other city
departments on social improvements.
One reform addresses the traditional problem of rents escalating
as income increases, a disincentive against working or saving
money.
Diggs Town has a $354 cap on monthly rents. That allows working
tenants to get ahead because increased income goes into escrow
savings accounts or toward rent reductions.
The housing authority also has a program to help tenants'
transition into the city's mainstream.
This includes 45 units of transitional housing scattered in
several private neighborhoods. Residents benefit from an array of
counseling, budgeting and skills programs. A portion of increased
earnings from jobs is put into escrow accounts.
So far, 14 of the first 25 participants have purchased houses.
The housing authority is studying ideas such as developing
affordable owner-occupied single-family homes on the edges of public
housing neighborhoods.
The agency also wants federal approval for a greater mix of
incomes in public housing, thereby breaking up the concentration of
poverty. The law now gives housing priority to the poorest.
Another initiative is development of a job-training program with
Tidewater Community College and linking participants with jobs at
the MacArthur Center shopping mall, scheduled to open in two years.
- Mike Knepler
PUBLIC HOUSING NEIGHBORHOODS
Oakleaf Forest 265 units
Diggs Town 422 units
Grandy Village 395 units
Bowling Green 349 units
Young Terrace 746 units
Calvert Square 313 units
Tidewater Gardens (North and South) 618 units
Moton Circle 137 units
Roberts Village, Roberts Village East 418 units
(Source: Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority)
PUBLIC HOUSING UNITS
Norfolk has 22.7 percent of the public housing units in Hampton
Roads.
Poverty
Norfolk has 42 percent of the 62,100 impoverished households in
South Hampton Roads and 27.5 percent of those throughout all of
Hampton Roads.
Throughout the region, 21.6 percent of impoverished households
live in public housing. Another 11.4 percent reside in other
subsidized housing.
(Source: Norfolk Department of Planning and
Codes Administration)
High school graduation rate: 37.8 percent in 1993, last available
data
Graduates with at least a C average: 13 percent
(Source: Norfolk School Board)
ON THE COVER
The cover photograph, taken by staff photographer Martin
Smith-Rodden, shows the proximity of the Young Terrace and Tidewater
Gardens public housing neighborhoods to the 17-acre tract where
MacArthur Center will be built.
HOW IT BEGAN . . .
And what's next?
Why would a city put 1,677 units of public housing next to its
prime downtown property?
Answer: Downtown Norfolk 1994 is not the downtown of 45 years ago
when redevelopment began.
The area was rife with slums, rated among the nation's worst.
The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, then more
independent from City Hall, created a three-member advisory
committee of black leaders.
They were the late P.B. Young, editor and publisher of The
Journal and Guide newspaper; J. Eugene Diggs, a prominent lawyer,
and the Rev. Richard R. Bowling.
The committee helped plan slum clearance and select sites for
public housing.
The arrangement led to development of three public housing
neighborhoods along the north and east sides of downtown as
replacement for about half the slum units that were torn down. The
remaining homes were built in outlying areas.
Three public housing neighborhoods bear the names of those
advisers: Young Terrace, Diggs Town and Bowling Green.
AND WHAT'S NEXT?
Mayor Paul D. Fraim believes he speaks for the majority of City
Council in saying that public housing does not work well enough to
improve lives of most residents.
What's the council's next step?
Fraim first wants council members to talk about the issues among
themselves.
Fraim said he then hopes the council will create a broad-based
task force to study problems and recommend solutions. The panel will
include tenants, he said.
He also wants to engage an outside consultant to help by
researching innovations across the country.
While Fraim likes the Diggs Town and transitional housing
programs, he also believes Norfolk must develop even more ways to
blend public housing residents with the general population.
``Unless you introduce them to the community at-large, with the
fabric of the community, it's real hard to break the cycle of
poverty,'' he said. ``I don't think you're going to do it by
congregating all of them in certain facilities.
``How do you introduce them to the larger community? There has to
be some recipes for that. We need more professional help.''
- Mike Knepler
by CNB