HOUSING PROGRAM FUNDING AT RISK

BELLEVUE-- The bars on the windows are gone, and pool balls no longer fly
angrily through the air.

Residents have stopped dealing marijuana and crack on their doorsteps;
alcohol and domestic violence calls have dropped; the grounds are full of
proudly blooming daffodils and tulips.

It's a whole lot safer these days at the four public housing complexes in
Bellevue.

But huge federal funding cuts threaten those successes, say King County
Housing Authority officials.

President Bush and Congress killed the $310 million Public Housing Drug
Elimination Program last year, and leftover Clinton administration funds
run out in November.

That means $1.1 million less for the King County Housing Authority, the
managing agency for public housing here.

For Bellevue programs, it's a reduction of $374,000 for community policing
and Boys & Girls Club after-school programs.

'Social Worker In Uniform'

That money pays for Bellevue Police Officer Richard Chinn and an
apartment-turned-police-station at Spiritwood Manor, a public housing
complex on 148th Avenue Southeast, that he patrols.

"It's very effective," said Bellevue Police Chief Jim Montgomery. "We've
seen the crime rate go down. (Chinn) has been able to impact so many
families with reading and feeding programs.

"He is the consummate social worker in uniform out there, getting 'em to
help before they really need it."

Chinn is on the city payroll, but $112,000 in federal cuts threaten an
assistant and the office space. Montgomery said the city might have to
consider picking up the tab.

Chinn said the substation is crucial to solving public housing crime and
problems.

"A lot of the time, they were alcohol and domestic violence calls," he
said. "Drug sales were rampant because nobody really cared.

"Now, if someone sees (drug sales), they're more apt to call police.
Residents are used to a lifestyle of quiet."

Since 1995, officials estimate, a 30 percent drop in crime has occurred at
Bellevue's public housing complexes by having an officer patrolling them
from Spiritwood.

Judy Lundquist is thrilled. Her family of five-- with two kids in high
school and one in middle school-- has lived at Spiritwood for 14 years in
one of the apartments not subsidized by the county.

"When I first moved here, there was a bad stigma," Lundquist said. "The
place was full of drugs and I lived in what they called 'The Bible Belt,'
one corner of the complex where the Christians lived, where people went to
church.

"But people don't have the low-income mentality anymore. The grounds are
beautiful. It doesn't look low-income at all, and the kids don't act that way.

"There are still horror stories here, but also huge successes."

Cabanas Turned Play Areas

Boys & Girls Clubs in three of the four Bellevue public housing complexes
are also credited with much of the turnaround.

Unlike the huge brick and mortar clubs throughout the Eastside, these tiny
clubs are shoehorned into former apartment cabanas, storage areas and
apartment offices that have been repainted and decorated to be more kid
friendly.

Every day, they're a din of grinning kids from low-income and otherwise
stressed families. The kids have access to computers and e- mail, video
games, a pool table and other games. Often they pile into vans heading to
Bellevue's skate park.

Eastside Terrace -- at Northeast Eighth Street and 148th Avenue Northeast
- -- has a diverse collection of as many as 50 kids, all playing games after
school before they're herded together for homework time.

Some are children of immigrants who know little English. Some kids have
pregnant, single, working moms, and the oldest children often have to take
care of younger siblings.

All rely on the Boys & Girls Club for surrogate parenting.

"We're so full, we can't let any more in than we have here, except teens,"
said Holly Gold, director of the Eastside Terrace Boys & Girls Club.

"If I don't hear crying or screaming or swearing I'm really happy."

Cuts of $70,000 were made to the Boys & Girls Club after-school computer
center at Eastside Terrace. The after-school programs at Hidden Village and
Spiritwood Manor lost a total of $156,000. And a visiting job training
program from Bellevue Community College will lose its $36,000.

"We've been getting funds for five years, and they're not covering all the
costs now," said Kathy Haggart, president and CEO of the Bellevue Boys &
Girls Club. "We need more, we don't need it cut.

"Basically it would be disastrous for us. We serve literally hundreds of
kids after school."

Money Gone This Year

Federal housing officials aren't so alarmed.

The King County Housing Authority can keep funding the Boys & Girls Club
program and community policing if it reallocates the $12.7 million annual
budget it has, said Jerry Brown, Housing and Urban Development spokesman.

He added that some housing authorities do not have drug programs and would
prefer to spend the money on such things as rising utility costs.

HUD's job is to provide more affordable housing, and the Bush
administration prefers drug programs to be handled by law enforcement agencies.

Also, Brown said federal audits showed abuses in the Drug Elimination
Program, including spending the money on junkets, computer access for the
elderly and programs to buy back guns.

Overall, bad accounting practices gave the program a black eye.

Fighting For Funds

Stephen Norman, executive director of the King County Housing Authority, is
going back to Washington, D.C., in two weeks to try to persuade officials
to restore the funding.

"Public housing in the Northwest is not the kind of train-wreck high- rise
that so seeded the public imagination in Chicago, Newark and D.C.," he
said. "Public housing out here works very well. It's the right size, and
people are out (of it) in generally five years, as envisioned."

Transferring money from one account to another is not an option, according
to Norman.

"We're starting to hemorrhage all over," he said.

The funding cuts don't worry Judy Lundquist. They might spur on her
neighbors to be more involved, she said.

"If the community doesn't pitch in, then that funding is going to be
totally necessary. I think the community needs to be more active."