THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510150042
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: ELECTION '95
THE CITIZENS' AGENDA
The Virginian-Pilot has asked people around the state what their major
concerns are leading up to the Nov. 7 election. This is one in a
series of in-depth reports on those concerns: Today's topic: Violence
in Public Housing.
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Federal officials say crime in public housing is a national problem, often making victims of the 2.8 million people whom the projects were designed to help.
``Security is the biggest challenge we face in housing communities,'' said Joseph Shuldiner, HUD's assistant secretary for public housing in Washington. ``It is just not adequate.''
That may be because the nation's 3,400 public housing authorities never have received money earmarked for fighting crime, Shuldiner said. Instead, money is budgeted for operating expenses without considering the public safety of residents.
And the authorities are not graded according to how safe they are. That allows for some weird paradoxes:
According to HUD, the two largest housing authorities in South Hampton Roads are performing efficiently. Portsmouth's rating is 95.30 out of 100; Norfolk's is 93.18. The Portsmouth authority has received two national awards in the past year.
HUD considers a range of management factors to determine how the nation's housing authorities are operating. They include vacancy rates, energy consumption and outstanding work orders.
The criteria do not include a crime component.
That may change. New regulations are being considered to include an assessment of how well housing authorities develop and follow a coordinated anti-crime plan with local police.
Coordination between residents and police is the only solution to housing-project crime, Shuldiner said.
``I am absolutely convinced police are not going to make public housing safe,'' said Shuldiner, who has run the housing authorities in Los Angeles and New York City.
``Only the residents can make it safe. That is the real key. Getting the community involved.''
Some of these ideas have taken root in Hampton Roads, with varying degrees of success. Portsmouth has developed citizen patrols, and Norfolk has a system of tenant councils.
Sometimes, though, the entire system breaks down. Violence and other problems reached such levels in Chicago last summer that the housing authority's board was relieved of responsibility and HUD took over.
HUD's intervention was necessary because crime in Chicago's projects, according to a housing authority spokesman, was simply out of control, especially in the high-rise buildings constructed a generation ago. Before the federal government took control, a resident of public housing in Chicago was twice as likely to be a crime victim as a nonresident.
In Virginia, more than 23,500 units of public housing are spread out in 28 housing authorities.
A 1992 study by the Virginia Crime Prevention Association estimated that about 120,000 people live in public and assisted housing in the state. About 32 percent are 18 and under; 40 percent are between 19 and 62; and 28 percent are over 62. The average family size, according to the study, is 3.1 people.
Many of these residents live in fear for their lives, according to the study, which found that the ``criminals who control the community (enforce) a strict code of silence. . . . The criminal element (believes) that they can live and operate there with little fear of being reported to the police. . . . Residents have relinquished control of their neighborhood to criminals and drug dealers.''
In a survey of residents, the study determined that most residents had not been victims of crime in the previous 12 months.
But most of those who said they had been crime victims said they did not report the crime to police for fear of reprisal.
Of those who reported the crime, a majority said they were not satisfied with what the police did. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/The Virginian-Pilot
Two teenagers hang out in Cypress Manor, a Suffolk housing community
that has the fourth-highest violent crime rate in South Hampton
Roads - 6.1 per 100 residents. There are six times as many violent
crimes in Cypress Manor than in the city as a whole.
KEYWORDS: COMMUNITY CONVERSATION CRIME PUBLIC HOUSING
HAMPTON ROADS STATISTICS by CNB