THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 1995 TAG: 9511160665
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 193 lines
When Norfolk's public housing task force held its last public hearing in June, Mayor Paul D. Fraim declared that improving ``the quality of life and conditions for residents'' is ``maybe the most important effort going on in this city at this time or maybe at any time.''
And, City Councilman Herbert M. Collins Sr., task force co-chairman, continues to call the committee's work ``the most important thing that I can do in my tenure.''
Today, Norfolk citizens can make their comments on improving public housing. The task force will hold its final public hearing 7 to 9 p.m. in Booker T. Washington High School.
This is a synopsis of some preliminary recommendations by the task force's subcommittees:
Education Subcommittee
GOALS
1. Raise academic achievement levels for all students living in public housing.
2. Raise literacy level of all adults living in public housing.
3. Enable parents living in public housing to become self-sufficient role models for their children.
IMPLEMENTATION
Work with Urban League to establish two Americorps Freedom Schools, offering full-time summer and year-round evening programs.
After-school tutoring in math and reading for students in grades two through five; homework assistance for students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
Encourage adults to enroll in education programs in their neighborhoods.
Enhanced vocational-technical education.
Coordinate programs with Norfolk State and Old Dominion universities and Tidewater Community College to provide residents more opportunity to continue education and vocational training. This includes financial assistance.
Values Subcommittee
1. Value: responsibility for public safety lies with police and neighborhood residents.
Implementation:
NRHA, police and courts must strongly enforce rules and laws.
Establish police mini-stations in each public-housing neighborhood and man them full time.
Establish block-security and parking-permit programs in each public-housing neighborhood.
Establish policies to address offenders not living in public housing and those who harbor or assist them from within.
Establish ``court-watch'' programs to monitor court responsiveness on violations of rules.
2. Value: strong families as havens to nurture positive growth.
Implementation:
Recreation and related programs should focus on activities for families, not just for youth.
Encourage partnerships with local religious organizations.
Church and school facilities near public housing neighborhoods should serve as greater focal points for the communities, providing space for activities.
Encourage neighborhood festivals, family reunions and community gatherings.
Ensure that programs provide positive role models.
3. Value: the pursuit of academic and vocational education for residents of all ages to enhance self-sufficiency; seek waivers in existing regulations where necessary.
Implementation:
Limit the years a person can live in public housing; exceptions for elderly and people with disabilities; periodic evaluations for case-by-case monitoring of progress toward self-sufficiency.
Provide education and training in easily accessible sites, with mandatory attendance tied to leases in some cases.
Establish an enforced savings program where some rent goes to interest-bearing accounts for future homeownership or education.
4. Value: living-wage employment opportunities and preparation for meaningful jobs.
Implementation:
Job-training programs.
Expand enrollment in programs aimed at increasing chances for employment, such as education, job-readiness and skills training, and apprenticeships.
5. Value: community participation in problem solving and governance.
Implementation:
Expand leadership training for residents, including training for skills in problem solving, mediation, organizing, public speaking and writing.
Develop a resident-association panel to review cases of tenants who break rules.
Expand partnerships with religious, business and service organizations that provide positive programs for residents.
6. Value: respect for self and others.
Implementation:
Comprehensive assessments of individual needs of every tenant.
``Social lease'' for all households, including instruction in community standards and require participation in programs that move toward self-sufficiency.
7. Value: strong community standards.
Implementation:
Strongly communicate and disseminate community standards.
Encourage, and possibly require, participation in activities that improve families and community.
Physical Assessment and Design Subcommittee
GOALS
Where possible, public housing should look like private houses in a city neighborhood.
Existing public housing should be blended into surrounding communities neighborhood with a variety of house types, income groups and amenities.
Public-housing neighborhoods should be designed to be safe, encouraging residents to take control and discouraging criminals.
Apartments should be designed to be marketable to a wider range of income groups.
Legislative Subcommittee
GOALS
1. Public housing should serve a wider mix of income groups.
2. Public housing should be a transitional rather than permanent resource for needy families.
IMPLEMENTATION
Balanced Neighborhoods
Seek repeal of federal rules governing selection of residents, thereby giving Norfolk power to determine its own preferences.
Seek federal permission for Norfolk to set rent formulas with some assurances to still serve low-income families.
Transitional Housing
``Social leases'' for transitional housing programs.
Establish an ``affordable housing trust fund'' with consistent source of money.
Require all new public and private housing developments to provide some affordable units or contribute to the trust fund.
Get the city, NRHA and business leaders to commit to hiring qualified public-housing residents and to contracting with qualified businesses from public housing.
Miscellaneous
Declare public housing as drug-free zones with extra fines for violators.
City government should be more responsive to the distinguishing characteristics of public-housing neighborhoods, such as possible need for parking decals and speed bumps.
Create a liaison between public-housing neighborhoods and city government to facilitate the resolution of problems.
Supportive Programs Subcommittee
GOAL
Link supportive services to any consideration of limits on time a family may stay in public housing.
IMPLEMENTATION
A. General
Careful consideration before imposing any time limits. Any changes in policy must be accompanied by appropriate services.
Create data base of services and make it available to all public-housing residents.
Improve awareness and enforcement of NRHA ``No Nonsense Now'' program for violations.
B. Crime/Violence/Drugs
Fully support police Public Housing Resource Officer Program.
Develop neighborhood watch-type programs.
C. Individual/Family Development.
Seek federal waivers from rules that act as disincentives to marriage or presence of fathers in homes.
Establish family-support centers, with night and weekend hours, in each neighborhood.
Have City Council appoint a committee to review services.
Establish a 12-step treatment group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, near each neighborhood.
Fully develop ``village captain'' concept in each neighborhood.
Adopt more non-traditional programs such as PACE to encourage more resident participation.
Have residents involved as partners in every program or service.
D. Community/City Development.
Set benchmarks to measure improvements.
Recognize outstanding efforts in public housing.
Initiate programs that reward successful steps to self-sufficiency.
Expand Diggs Town economic-empowerment to all public housing.
Economic Opportunity/Upward Mobility Subcommittee
GOAL
Address the need for jobs, job creation, micro-enterprise and early intervention.
IMPLEMENTATION
Create or expand services such as: job-training and Urban Apprenticeship programs of Norfolk Works; youth apprenticeship, employment and enterprise programs of Norfolk public schools; entrepreneurship programs by Norfolk State, NationsBank and NRHA; and successful programs modeled after those in Cambridge, Mass., and New York City. ILLUSTRATION: PUBLIC HOUSING HEARING
What: Public hearing on draft recommendations of the Public
Housing Task Force.
When: 7-9 p.m. today.
Where: Booker T. Washington High School, 1111 Park Ave.
More information: Copies of the draft recommendations are
available for viewing at all public-library branches,
tenant-management offices, City Clerk's office at City Hall, and
Resident Services office at Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing
Authority, 201 Granby St.
by CNB