FAIRFAX TENANTS SAY THEY FEEL TRAPPED

TAUNTON -- You are a single mom.

You're doing the best you can to raise your children. Money is tight.
You can never get ahead.

The only place you can afford to live is in the Fairfax Gardens
Public Housing Project.

You go to work every day, obey laws and make arrangements to have
your kids cared for.

You live in the middle of the highest crime area in the city. You're
scared, but you put your fears aside.

You watch your children like a hawk. You won't let them outside at night.

Some of your neighbors are in the same situation as you. Some are not.

You see criminal activity there -- but you won't call the police. You
don't want to face retaliation.

A lot of crime you see is committed by people who don't even live on
your street. They wander in at night to buy and sell drugs. Some of
them are teenagers.

You don't like what you see, but at least no one is shooting.

Some days are quieter than others.

The everyday struggles of people who live on DeWert Avenue can truly
only be understood by someone who has experienced life there firsthand.

Many of the residents who have lived there for years said they don't
mind living on DeWert Avenue. They mind their own business and keep
out of trouble.

Many of them have raised children there. To some, its home and they
don't know what it's like to live anywhere else. And they don't want
to leave their home.

What started out as a home for the wives of soldiers has become the
place with the highest volume of criminal activity in the city.

Last Thursday, police arrested 12 people in the Fairfax Gardens
Public Housing Project, including a 16-year-old boy. Arrests were
made following a five-week undercover operation during which officers
from different towns purchased drugs from people in the public housing project.

The 12 were arrested on charges of distribution of heroin or cocaine
or pills and conspiracy to violate the controlled substance act.
Police hold warrants for eight more people.

Police do not have the funding to continue with the investigation.

Go to Fairfax Gardens on a warm, sunny day and you'll see children
playing on the playground and running through the sprinklers. Go to
DeWert Avenue at night, and you'll see a different place.

Florence LaCombe raised seven children on DeWert. She said living
there does not bother her because she's been there for 36 years. And
she does not plan to leave.

"I don't think I'll ever go out of here," she said. "I can't afford it."

LaCombe does not go outside at night and she makes sure to keep her
door locked.

"After midnight, that's when everything happens around here," she said.

LaCombe said she thinks that people who have young children are most
afraid to live in Fairfax Gardens.

"A lot of young people, I guess they would find it hard to live
here," she said. "They're scared of this place."

LaCombe said right now, she just wants people to keep the crime off
her door step.

She said when she and her husband first moved to DeWert, it was a
different place.

"When I moved here, this place was beautiful. This place was so
quiet. They used to keep this place up real nice."

She said since police arrested so many people last Thursday that she
did not expect to see an officer there for a week.

She pointed out the old police sub-station and said that there had
not been an officer in it for a long time.

Mary Marquez has lived in Fairfax Gardens for 37 years and has also
raised her children here.

According to Marquez, one of her daughters was arrested last Thursday.

"I love my kids and everything," she said. "I raise them until they're 18.

Her daughter was not living with her during the time of her arrest.
The mother said she won't turn her back on her daughter -- but she
will not let her live in her house either.

Marquez said she is not scared for herself -- she more concerned
about the young kids she is raising now.

She said she keeps her children in the house most of the time and if
they are outside and trouble arises she quickly ushers them inside.

DeWert Avenue only has one entrance and it is watched. When police
come, people are warned.

They yell 5-0 and use walkie-talkies to let people know that police
are entering the development. Residents and police are both aware of
what the code means. When word gets out, people hide.

"It's like a game," said Detective Sgt. Mike Grundy. "When the police
are in there, it (the criminal activity) slows down."

Grundy said a majority of residents are good people, and about 10
percent in the complex, along with those who don't live there, cause
the problems.

However, he said not everyone who lives on DeWert Avenue is willing
to report criminal activity to the police.

"A lot of them -- they see things going on around them and they don't
call because they are afraid of retribution," he said.

The two community police officers who are assigned to the project are
both out on injury.

Grundy said with grants secured by Colleen Doherty, of the Taunton
Housing Authority, they are able to hire two police officers in
shifts to monitor Fairfax Gardens during the night.

But police can't be there all the time, he said. He said some people
get evicted, but continue to hang out in the area. Some move back in.

He said police and housing authority officials are doing the best
they can with the resources that they have.

Grundy said a lot of the problem "falls on the court system."

He said police arrest people, and they are out on the street again
before police can finish their reports. He said punishing
small-volume, street-level dealers will make a big impact on crime in the city.

"They don't see the same importance of punishing street level drug
dealers," Grundy said. He said many of the street level dealers are young kids.

"What affects people the most is the street level dealers."

Jose Escalera, 8, left, Ramelisse Elicier, 9, center, and Carmen
Marquez, 8, run through the sprinkler at Fairfax Gardens housing
complex in Taunton.