BUSH: SCRAP PUBLIC HOUSING DRUG PUSH

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Since the first Bush administration, federal dollars
have paid for security officers, alarm systems and after-school activities
for youngsters in poor public housing projects.

President Bush, however, has proposed scrapping the Public Housing Drug
Elimination Program, saying it has had "limited impact" and that
"regulatory tools such as eviction are more effective at reducing drug
activity in public housing."

Program supporters are worried about the message it would send to public
housing residents, who themselves fear it may imperil their safety.

In his proposed budget for 2002, the president wants to give public housing
leaders about half of the $310 million allocated this year for the program
for security, higher utility rates or other needs.

Part of Bush's approach is getting religious groups involved in
neighborhoods. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which
oversees a variety of housing programs mainly for the poor, "is going to be
one of the lead agencies in the faith-based efforts," said Robert Woodson
Jr., deputy chief of staff at HUD.

A program supporter, Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y., said Bush's idea would, in
effect, tell families trying to raise their children in public housing that
"drug dealers are welcomed back" and that combating crime no longer is a
priority.

But Woodson said Congress spends hundreds of millions yearly on the drug
initiative and "we still have a lot of problems and crime in public
housing. Maybe we need a different approach here."

During the week in February when Bush proposed his budget, a Kentucky
police officer was shot in the chest and nearly died while trying to arrest
a suspected drug dealer in a Louisville housing project.

Louisville has used the federal program to pay for 14 lawmen to patrol
housing complexes and would be concerned about losing the money, said Tim
Barry, acting director of the housing authority.

Advocates for the 1.3 million families who live in government housing
projects defend the program started in 1989 under then-HUD Secretary Jack
Kemp in the administration of Bush's father. An aide to Kemp said Kemp
would not discuss the program.

"It's just absolutely insane to say it hasn't worked," said Richard Nelson,
director of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.

Nelson said the substitute spending recommended by Bush would not even
cover half the expected increase in utility costs.

Ethel Velez, 52, a lifelong public housing resident in New York, says that
while the drug program has not solved problems, scrapping it would add to
crime worries in housing projects.

"If they're going to get less (protection) than they get now, they're going
to be mad -- and very scared," said Velez, the president of her Harlem
neighborhood association of more than 3,000 people.

In all, Bush proposed cutting an estimated $1.3 billion next year from
programs overseen by HUD, according to an analysis by LaFalce, who held a
news conference last week with other Democratic congressman to criticize
the spending plan.

"Reducing funds needed to improve the lives of the poorest children in
America, those who live in public housing, is a very odd way to show
compassion," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

LaFalce, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said a
proposed $700 million reduction in a repair fund would mean that public
housing residents' "leaky roofs may never be fixed, and that their
dilapidated 30-year-old stoves won't be replaced."

Bush said the reduction would have no immediate impact because most housing
authorities have a backlog in repair money.

"People should not feel it at all," said HUD's Woodson.

Woodson said the fund is often used for major renovation projects on
unoccupied buildings, so "you're not talking about families who don't have
running water because a boiler unit was not fixed."