HOUSING AGENCIES RECEIVE GRANTS TO FIGHT DRUGS, CRIME

The federal Drug Elimination Grants include more than $533,000 for
Durham. This is the seventh consecutive grant for the Bull City.

Triangle public housing agencies will receive $1.2 million in federal
grants to fight crime and drugs, officials said Thursday.

The Drug Elimination Grants, awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development, are intended for drug prevention and treatment,
policing, and securing housing units with better locks, fencing and
lighting.

This year, HUD is distributing more than $305 million under the
anti-drug program to 749 public housing authorities, 39 Indian tribes
and 143 privately-owned housing developments receiving help from the
federal agency.

Durham and Raleigh will receive $533,020 and $512,720 respectively.
Chapel Hill is set to get $100,504. Housing authorities in Rocky
Mount, Sanford, Selma, Wilmington and Greenville will also get money
under the anti-drug program.

This is Raleigh's ninth, and Durham's seventh, consecutive grant of
this kind. Including this year's awards, HUD has given out more than
$1.6 billion in drug elimination grants since 1989.

Politicians and city officials savored the news at news conferences at
Durham's Old Five Points and Raleigh's Halifax Court, the largest of
the city's 14 public housing complexes. Also speaking at the events
was a HUD assistant secretary, Deborah Vincent.

During the news conference at Halifax's tiny community center, Vincent
and U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge presented a huge mock check made of
plastic foam to Raleigh Housing Authority Director Steve Beam. As the
assembled bureaucrats and community advocates clapped and cameras
flashed, he told housing authority directors from other cities that
their checks "were in the mail."

Raleigh's Halifax Court, a block of boxy brick buildings near Peace
College, symbolizes how the federal grants, combined with local help,
can help a crime-ridden area.

Just four years ago, Halifax Court suffered drug-related crimes almost
nightly, worrying both residents and neighbors in the bordering
Mordecai community.

"I remember my wife and I would get rocked to sleep every night by
gunfire," said Skip Long, a Mennonite minister who lives near Halifax
and serves on the board of Raleigh's Housing Authority.

Things didn't change until August 1994, when the city opened a police
substation there, cutting crime in half by 1996. In addition, using
both federal and local resources, the Housing Authority worked with
private groups like Building Together Ministries and SouthLight to
educate and counsel residents in Halifax and other housing complexes
about drugs, family issues and work.

Raleigh plans to use the money on various drug prevention and
treatment programs.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady