LESS FUNDS FOR DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON - It helped to keep Pat Jordan off drugs, one day at a
time, and give Dorothy Spillers a sense of security in her own home.

For residents of public housing nationwide, a federal program
designed to rid projects of drugs and crime has been more than just
another series of grants from Washington to urban America.

The Bush administration, however, argues that it does not work and
that there are better ways to make public housing safer and help
people straighten out their lives. President Bush has proposed ending
the program, which dates from the dawn of his father's administration.

That worries beneficiaries who fear they will lose a familiar base of
support that has reduced drug-dealing, crime and addiction in their
neighborhoods.

"It is easier to get your next fix than to get help,'' said Jordan, a
38-year-old single mother of two who lives in a Baltimore project.
"When you get doors slammed in your face and there are waiting lists,
that's sad.''

Jordan said the drug elimination program, run by the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, helped keep her off drugs for 29 days,
the longest she has been clean in 11 years. She said group and
individual counseling sessions that often are conducted by former
addicts helped her stay clean.

The $310 million program provides grants to municipal housing
authorities for a variety of programs to help improve the lives of
the housing projects' poor residents.

But Bush considers the program less effective than evictions and
other regulatory tools in ridding housing projects of crime and drugs.

The money is used to hire security personnel and investigators;
educate, prevent and treat drug addicts; buy security devices, such
as cameras and fences; and improve security and drug prevention
programs.

Congress is considering competing legislation either to cut the
program or fund it fully.

Although Bush is seeking to kill the program, the administration
wants to give housing authorities $110 million next year to spend as
they see fit. That money could pay for crime- and drug-fighting
efforts. Housing Secretary Mel Martinez said some current spending -
for recreation, field trips, gun buyback campaigns and programs that
reduce stress through the use of incense, candles and gem stones -
strays too far from HUD's primary mission of providing housing for
the poor.

The Baltimore City Housing Authority, for example, used
drug-elimination funds for a field trip for 200 public housing youths
to learn how to sail boats at a downtown sailing club, said agency
spokesman John Wesley. He said the children also participated in a
Web chat with an astronaut.

Martinez said cutting the 12-year-old program allows HUD to get out
of areas that are the primary focus of other federal, state and local
agencies.

"We have taken on the burden of responsibility of caring for a very
vulnerable population out of the hands, in some ways, of local police
and law enforcement where it rightfully belongs and taken it upon the
housing authorities,'' Martinez said.

The program goes "way beyond our mission,'' he said last week. "While
it has had good results in some places, it has been terribly misused
in others.''

Public housing residents, though, say local law enforcement agencies
often are unable to provide adequate safety.

"The Chicago Police Department does a good job of patrolling the
area, but they cannot be here all the time,'' said Spillers, 56, an
eight-year resident of public housing.

In her project, drug-elimination money is used to pay for a
supplemental security force of residents. Participants get a $50 rent
credit after they spend 32 hours checking buildings for suspicious
behavior and hazardous conditions.

The administration says religious organizations, with federal help,
may be able to perform many of the services, such as counseling drug
addicts, now provided under the program.

But Samuel Little of the Baltimore housing agency said that people of
different denominations, such as Jordan, who is a Jehovah's Witness,
may not want to take advantage of the counseling or services.

"There is a concern that different denominations may be a barrier to
reaching some of the families,'' he said.