CRIME HARD TO UPROOT IN PUBLIC HOUSING

Millions in federal spending and a concerted police presence did not dent
serious crime in Nashville's public housing during a recent two-year period
in which the city's overall crime rate sank.

A Metro police analysis conducted for The Tennessean shows that even as
major offenses in Nashville dropped 9% from 2001 to 2002, crimes including
homicide, rape, robbery and assault barely budged in public housing,
dropping less than 0.8%.

The analysis tallied crime at 18 of the city's largest complexes. Almost
12,000 people live in these complexes.

The seeming ineffectiveness of efforts against crime in public housing is
one gauge of just how intractable this problem is.

Consider:

* As part of drug-elimination programs, local housing officials disbursed
federal grants of $1.6 million in 2001 and $1.4 million in 2002 - $12
million over the past 11 years. Federal officials acknowledge, however, that
they don't check whether the money leads to actual crime and drug reduction
as long as the local public housing authority spends the funds as promised.

* The housing authority added security upgrades of at least $8.9 million
since 1999. This included private security officers and improved locks,
windows and lighting.

* One special Metro police team of five officers and a sergeant was assigned
to the complexes and other crime hot spots. Annual task force costs are
between $450,000 and $500,000 and are paid for by the Metro Development and
Housing Agency's budget.

* Two decrepit complexes, Preston Taylor Homes and Vine Hill, were razed in
2001 and 1998, respectively, at a cost of $48.5 million. Housing officials
said the demolition and rebuilding were completed in part to combat crime.

* Applicants are barred from obtaining public housing if they have a history
of violent or drug-related offenses. Last year, 153 applicants were denied
admission to public and Section 8 housing as a result.

* A ''one strike'' rule means residents can be evicted when guests and
household members are involved in criminal activity or if their abuse of
drugs or alcohol is a threat to neighbors. There were 64 evictions under
this rule last year and 46 this year.

Police figures for all of Nashville show that serious crime (homicide, rape,
robbery, assault, burglary, theft and auto theft) dropped from 50,915 in
2001 to 46,473 in 2002. The same offenses dropped only slightly, from 2,391
to 2,372, in public housing over the same period.

Fighting Crime, Drugs

Housing officials say they are doing all they can.

''We're like anywhere else in the city,'' said Phil Ryan, executive director
of the Metro Development and Housing Agency, which oversees the
administration of Nashville's public housing. ''We ultimately rely on the
Metro Police Department for security. That's the base. And we try to do all
these things to enhance them.''

Crime has ''been on the decrease where we've had the resources ... to do
something extra, something special,'' said Ryan, referring to the
drug-elimination grants his agency has received.

In fact, MDHA says, crime decreased in several complexes.

Asked whether MDHA's ability to reduce crime is tied to federal grant money,
Ryan said, ''Resources are definitely an issue.''

MDHA officials say the focus of their efforts to combat drugs - a
significant factor in violent and other crimes - is primarily on prevention
and intervention programs that aim to give children opportunities to stay
out of trouble. Thus, the drug-elimination grants primarily go to local
programs such as the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts of America and the YMCA.

Ryan and other Nashville housing officials said it was ''easier'' for them
to focus on programs aimed at reaching younger children before they get
hooked on drugs than to try to rehabilitate drug-using adults, whose
addictions and habits are more likely to have deeper roots.

Michael Farley, public housing coordinator for the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development in Middle and West Tennessee, said it was not
HUD's responsibility to monitor whether the federal drug-elimination grants
were taking drugs and crime out of a city's public housing landscape.

''Whether or not the efficacy of the program is successful can sometimes be
an enigma,'' Farley said. ''But if we find out it has not been successful,
we would take those funds back.''

He said there were no indications that grant money was not being used
effectively in Nashville.

But the drug-elimination grants, which made up a significant part of
crime-fighting efforts in public housing, have been terminated. HUD
secretary Mel Martinez worked with Congress to terminate the program, saying
it was well-intentioned but suffered from many abuses and duplicated the
work of other Cabinet departments.

Never A Program For Parents

One longtime public housing resident said Nashville's policy for fighting
drug crime in public housing had focused almost exclusively on juveniles at
the expense of adults who desperately need help.

''Every corner has a program for the children,'' said Gayle Fleming, whose
daily work at the John Henry Hale Homes brings her face-to-face with
residents desperate to learn the basics about parenting, managing a
household and keeping their families safe.

Her program to teach parenting and other skills to complex residents has
been funded since 1992 by the federal drug-elimination grant program. ''But
a program for the parents - you never see a program for the parents. It's
always for the children. I know the children are supposed to be the future.
But what kind of future? There is nothing for the leaders of those kids.''

Fleming, a 32-year resident at the north Nashville public housing complex,
said police were doing their jobs, riding through frequently and making
arrests when necessary. But as she works each day, she said, she stares into
the faces of distraught neighbors and residents who are frustrated at seeing
trespassers arrested but back on the streets within hours without any
apparent repercussions.

Police Say They Are Aggressive

For their part, Metro police officers say they're aggressively targeting
criminals and monitoring trouble spots.

Officer Randall Moore, during a Friday night patrol through several housing
complexes including Sam Levy Homes and James A. Cayce Homes, said the
continuing crime was frustrating. It's outsiders, he said, who come to the
complexes from other areas of town and even out of the county to buy drugs.
Drugs, he said, are the major cause of crime at the developments.

Moore is a Metro police officer paid by MDHA to patrol the city's housing
complexes.

Other problems come, he said, when families take in friends and relatives
who aren't supposed to be there because of public-housing restrictions
against residents with a history of violence. Many are boyfriends, Moore
said, and some are former inmates just released from prison, most of whom
have no job and no other place to go.

''They've told me up front, 'Who's going to hire me with my record?' ''
Moore said. ''Me being a police officer, I'm all for people going to jail
when they commit crimes, but what's going to happen to them when they get
out?''

Crime in the developments was one of the most frustrating problems during
Gerald Nicely's 22-year tenure as the executive director of the Metro
Development and Housing Agency, he said last week in an interview.

Sometimes police and housing officials would get crime down at one
development, only to see it move somewhere else, he said.

''We spent a lot of money during my time there, and I know they're doing it
now,'' Nicely said.

Much of that was for tearing down and rebuilding Vine Hill and Preston
Taylor Homes, at a cost of $13.5 million and $35 million, respectively.

Sam Levy Homes is the next complex scheduled for reconstruction, in late
2004. It will cost an estimated $32 million in grant money, MDHA funds and
Metro funds to tear down 480 units and rebuild 226 homes.

One resident said the tear-down at Preston Taylor had been a success. Fallon
Carter, 19, and her 15-month-old daughter moved there six months ago after a
year at the James A. Cayce Homes. The move from a 1,853-resident complex to
the rebuilt Preston Taylor, which houses slightly more than 500 people, is a
new beginning, Carter said.

''Now my daughter and I can sit outside and enjoy the fresh air without
being caught in the crossfire,'' Carter said. ''No one in their right mind
wants to live under government housing for the rest of their life. Preston
Taylor is a steppingstone for me because I hope to own my own home in two
years.''

But the federal grants that made the demolition and rebuilding possible are
going away. The $20 million revitalization grant that will be used to
replace Sam Levy Homes could be the last, federal housing officials have
said.

Fleming, a resident of public housing, knows there are no easy answers.
''This didn't start overnight, and it's not going to get cleaned up
overnight,'' Fleming said. ''I really don't know - I guess for God to come
down or something. We're going to need more than - I don't know - it's going
to take a lot of something.''