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Making Public Housing Work
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16296 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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3 / 1989 |
3,217 Words |
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Rita McWilliams
Rita McWilliams, formerly a national reporter for the
Washington Times, is a free-lance writer based in Washington,
D.C. |
Lena Jackson, a black single parent living in one of America's poorest inner cities, usually does not pay much attention to presidential appointments. But when President-elect George Bush selected Jack Kemp as secretary for housing and urban development, she cheered.
Thanks to Kemp's efforts in Congress, Jackson and tenants of the nation's public housing have been given a leg up on a struggle that has pitted housing bureaucrats against many of the nation's poorest citizens. Legislation that Kemp authored gives Jackson and the 2.5 million others who live in public housing projects the right to kick out the bureaucrats and take charge of their own housing complexes. And tenants in 14 of the nation's worst projects have done what the guidance of enlightened public servants had been unable to accomplish--turned drug infested war zones into decent places to raise a family.
Even before Kemp's legislation became law, Jackson and other tenants had wrested control of Lakeview Terrace, the Cleveland public housing complex where she lives. Kemp legislation, signed into law by former President Reagan in early 1988, ensures residents of public housing the right to manage their own communities, as well as begins the allocation of some 50 grants of $100,000 to help other groups of tenants get similar programs off the ground.
Why would the Lena Jacksons of America want to manage the nation's public housing? Public housing projects have become havens for drug dealers, thieves, and rapists. The units are run down, their halls covered with graffiti. Many of the residents ignore the basics of neighborliness, throwing garbage out windows and using stairwells as urinals.
Too poor to move out, many tenants of public housing face the prospect of either bringing up their children in this environment or changing it. "Just like parents in the suburbs, we wanted the best for our children," Jackson says. "We told them they could be anything they wanted if they did their homework and worked hard. But we knew the environment was having an impact. We had to do something to restore the dignity in our community."
Jackson and tenant managers from Boston to New Orleans have put other tenants to work fixing up the properties--painting, cleaning, and repairing. They levy fines against those who break the rules and screen applicants who want to live in their complex. They expect more from their neighbors, and they get it. Tenant managers are injecting new pride and
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