Pubdate: Sun, 03 Mar 2002
Source: Eastside Journal (WA)
Copyright: 2000 Horvitz Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.eastsidejournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/985
Author: Jeff Switzer

HOUSING PROGRAM FUNDING AT RISK

BELLEVUE-- The bars on the windows are gone, and pool balls no longer fly 
angrily through the air.

Residents have stopped dealing marijuana and crack on their doorsteps; 
alcohol and domestic violence calls have dropped; the grounds are full of 
proudly blooming daffodils and tulips.

It's a whole lot safer these days at the four public housing complexes in 
Bellevue.

But huge federal funding cuts threaten those successes, say King County 
Housing Authority officials.

President Bush and Congress killed the $310 million Public Housing Drug 
Elimination Program last year, and leftover Clinton administration funds 
run out in November.

That means $1.1 million less for the King County Housing Authority, the 
managing agency for public housing here.

For Bellevue programs, it's a reduction of $374,000 for community policing 
and Boys & Girls Club after-school programs.

'Social Worker In Uniform'

That money pays for Bellevue Police Officer Richard Chinn and an 
apartment-turned-police-station at Spiritwood Manor, a public housing 
complex on 148th Avenue Southeast, that he patrols.

"It's very effective," said Bellevue Police Chief Jim Montgomery. "We've 
seen the crime rate go down. (Chinn) has been able to impact so many 
families with reading and feeding programs.

"He is the consummate social worker in uniform out there, getting 'em to 
help before they really need it."

Chinn is on the city payroll, but $112,000 in federal cuts threaten an 
assistant and the office space. Montgomery said the city might have to 
consider picking up the tab.

Chinn said the substation is crucial to solving public housing crime and 
problems.

"A lot of the time, they were alcohol and domestic violence calls," he 
said. "Drug sales were rampant because nobody really cared.

"Now, if someone sees (drug sales), they're more apt to call police. 
Residents are used to a lifestyle of quiet."

Since 1995, officials estimate, a 30 percent drop in crime has occurred at 
Bellevue's public housing complexes by having an officer patrolling them 
from Spiritwood.

Judy Lundquist is thrilled. Her family of five-- with two kids in high 
school and one in middle school-- has lived at Spiritwood for 14 years in 
one of the apartments not subsidized by the county.

"When I first moved here, there was a bad stigma," Lundquist said. "The 
place was full of drugs and I lived in what they called 'The Bible Belt,' 
one corner of the complex where the Christians lived, where people went to 
church.

"But people don't have the low-income mentality anymore. The grounds are 
beautiful. It doesn't look low-income at all, and the kids don't act that way.

"There are still horror stories here, but also huge successes."

Cabanas Turned Play Areas

Boys & Girls Clubs in three of the four Bellevue public housing complexes 
are also credited with much of the turnaround.

Unlike the huge brick and mortar clubs throughout the Eastside, these tiny 
clubs are shoehorned into former apartment cabanas, storage areas and 
apartment offices that have been repainted and decorated to be more kid 
friendly.

Every day, they're a din of grinning kids from low-income and otherwise 
stressed families. The kids have access to computers and e- mail, video 
games, a pool table and other games. Often they pile into vans heading to 
Bellevue's skate park.

Eastside Terrace -- at Northeast Eighth Street and 148th Avenue Northeast 
- -- has a diverse collection of as many as 50 kids, all playing games after 
school before they're herded together for homework time.

Some are children of immigrants who know little English. Some kids have 
pregnant, single, working moms, and the oldest children often have to take 
care of younger siblings.

All rely on the Boys & Girls Club for surrogate parenting.

"We're so full, we can't let any more in than we have here, except teens," 
said Holly Gold, director of the Eastside Terrace Boys & Girls Club.

"If I don't hear crying or screaming or swearing I'm really happy."

Cuts of $70,000 were made to the Boys & Girls Club after-school computer 
center at Eastside Terrace. The after-school programs at Hidden Village and 
Spiritwood Manor lost a total of $156,000. And a visiting job training 
program from Bellevue Community College will lose its $36,000.

"We've been getting funds for five years, and they're not covering all the 
costs now," said Kathy Haggart, president and CEO of the Bellevue Boys & 
Girls Club. "We need more, we don't need it cut.

"Basically it would be disastrous for us. We serve literally hundreds of 
kids after school."

Money Gone This Year

Federal housing officials aren't so alarmed.

The King County Housing Authority can keep funding the Boys & Girls Club 
program and community policing if it reallocates the $12.7 million annual 
budget it has, said Jerry Brown, Housing and Urban Development spokesman.

He added that some housing authorities do not have drug programs and would 
prefer to spend the money on such things as rising utility costs.

HUD's job is to provide more affordable housing, and the Bush 
administration prefers drug programs to be handled by law enforcement agencies.

Also, Brown said federal audits showed abuses in the Drug Elimination 
Program, including spending the money on junkets, computer access for the 
elderly and programs to buy back guns.

Overall, bad accounting practices gave the program a black eye.

Fighting For Funds

Stephen Norman, executive director of the King County Housing Authority, is 
going back to Washington, D.C., in two weeks to try to persuade officials 
to restore the funding.

"Public housing in the Northwest is not the kind of train-wreck high- rise 
that so seeded the public imagination in Chicago, Newark and D.C.," he 
said. "Public housing out here works very well. It's the right size, and 
people are out (of it) in generally five years, as envisioned."

Transferring money from one account to another is not an option, according 
to Norman.

"We're starting to hemorrhage all over," he said.

The funding cuts don't worry Judy Lundquist. They might spur on her 
neighbors to be more involved, she said.

"If the community doesn't pitch in, then that funding is going to be 
totally necessary. I think the community needs to be more active."
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MAP posted-by: Beth