Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 March 1991 — Page 2

PAG! AS

THt INPIAHAPOU! HBCOHDiil

SPECIAL REPORT

The pttgbt of tow-income housing ■.•:••'. '•'••-.■ '/ 'i' :• •' ’ '• • ■■' ••',■ * ‘ '. ..." . • ; • • •- ' • ' • - •'• • • ■'- ' • •"'• • •' ■• ?■> ■' " ■-'''- Is public housing u form of segregation?

By KIM L. HOOPER

Staff Writer

built on land that had previously been dotted with slum housing on the city’s northwest side. Covering 22 acres and after a cost of $3

Low-cost housing is wrongly assumed to million to build, Lockefield Gardens opened in have originated in the United States when in 1939. Jerry Rogers, of the U.S. Department of fact, the* concept of public housing is a rela- the Interior, wrote in 1977 that Lodcefidd lively new one in this country. “established the standard for subsidized hous-

It took a Financial collapse to finally prompt mg"

this country to reevaluate its housing practices. But it and a second housing project develFollowing World War I, many European coun- oped nearly 10 years later— Barrington Heights tries began an attempt to solve their housing on the city’s Southeastside—were developed shortages, but it was not until the 1929 stock exclusively for the city’s African-American market crash and the Great Depression that community. It was an effort, some say, to keep America began to make housing available to African-Americans in segregated housing, families with low and moderate income. “But it was providing housing that was both To alleviate overcrowding and substandard affordable and also decent, safe and sanitary," housing, the federally funded Public Works said Katherine Fox-Toumer, executive direcAdministration, came into existence under tor for the City of Indianapolis Division of

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal" Housing.

policies. By increasing employment and pur- “Most cities in the country when they inichasing power through the constroction of tially built housing communities for multi-, useful public works, the PWA program lent families and many housing authorities in parfederal funds to state and local governments to ticular, the actual plans and drawings that you fund the construction of housing projects, see on file will say 'aparunent complex for Subsequent legislation, including the Housing colored families,’” explained Fox-Toumer. Act of 1937 and, later, the Housing and Urban Formerly called the Indianapolis Housing Development Act of 1968 also made public Authority until January 1986, the Division of housing more readily available. Housing at 401 N. Meridian St. is now a Fifty public housing complexes were divisionofthecity’sDepartmentofMetropoli*

planned for construction in 1933 and approxi- tan Development,

matcly $ 125 million was directed towards the The office was created in the late 1930s to projects in 20 states. Lockefield Gardens, help solve the city’s housing shortage with the Indianapolis’ first and largest public housing aid of federal funds that come primarily from project, was one ofthese projects and construe- the Office of Housing and Urban Develop-

tion was begun on the 748-unit apartment ment.

complex in. 1936. Lockefield Gardens was Shortly after it was created though, local

sentiment against federally funded public housing caused the Housing Authority to be closed down from March 1954 to March 1964. By a majority Gty Council ruling that year, the Housing Authority was reactivated and Dr, Joseph T. Taylor — then director of Planner House’s self-help housing program — was named to the board. At the time, Indianapolis Real Estate Board President Robert H. Graves voiced strong

and nugluct at

Blackburn Tarraca.

opposition to reestablishing the Housing Au- Gang grafftttl thority and declared, "It is socialistic housing raflaeta tha daipatr

pure and simple. It is not needed here." ' But Fox-Toumer said the earlier housing projects like Lockefield Gardens were not lowincome housing as we know it today. "Those people who lived in Lockefield were working families, they were not poor families in the sense of what poor families arc in public hous-

ing today," she said.

Saving the kids By CONNIE GAINES HAYES Staff Writer

Initcr-city youth can have a “fair chance” at life in and around their eastside housing complex with the help of businesses and community organizations committed to woikingiogeta with Ihcir neighbors. Ran, William Parrish, the industrial service director for the Wheelers Boys and Girls Club, 1704 E. 30th Si, has worked with Blackburn Terrace youth for 19 years. “Most clubs like Wheelers are put in the heart of areas like this because of the large number of children these complexes house,” Parrish said. Although Parrish has seen the negative aspect of the public housing complex, he and club members have also worked hand in hand with neighborhood youth trying to combat gang, drug and violence within their small community. “Through various programs at the center we give youth the auention they desperately seek," Parrish added. When it was first started the club catered to only boys, but early this year, they opened their doors to girls as well. Wheelers Boys and Girls Club offers six programs to accommodate persons of all ages — a personal and educational development program designed to prepare them for job placement; an outdoor and environmental education program which consists of an honor awards program for excellence; a health and physical education program that includes soccer, softball and volleyball; a social recreation segment that includes gamcroom tournaments; citizenship and leadership development programs that arc formed by the youth themselves and a cultural enrichment program geared toward bringing out the talents of inner-city youngsters. "Our youth need to feel that they have some input concerning the direction of their lives. They must feel connected to something or someone,” Parrish said. “Most of the teens that come to the club have been coming for years, they know members of the club can be trusted.” Referring to gang members as “unique youth,” Parrish believes that most gang related problems are due to single parent homes, no community role models and no respect for authority. “Youth today question everything an adult has to say, they will not just settle for ‘because I said so’ young people want answers,” Parrish emphasized. , Parish said all the Boys Clubs in the city provide partial solutions to the problems facing children in the projects. “I sec the problems of Blackburn Terrace and other

Division of housing trying to moot tenants' neeas

By KIM L. HOOPER

Staff Writer

Marvin Kantuan Chapman, 4, (Hat nla klta In tha park at Blackburn Tarraca. Tha Whaalar Boya and Glrta Club alma at Improving Ufa for cMkf ran such at Chapman. housing projects being seriously addressed through the Boys Club Association of Indianapolis,” Parrish said. Besides the program offered by the Boys and Girls Clubs, the management and some residenu of Blackburn arc also involved in other self-help projects. Office manager Brenda Johnson said she and another resident offer tutorial services for the youth after school to help them with their homework. “There are a lot of good kids in this complex.” said Johnson. Johnson said there are active boys and girls scouts programs operating in the complex. She is proud of what the children have been able to accomplish. In her office, she proudly displays several athletic trophies that were won by Blackburn’s children who were part of the Police Athletics League. In a major effort to upgrade the neighborhood, authorities arc planning to renovate the housing units and Johnson said, hopefully, that will instill some confidence and pride in area residenu.

during the mid-1960s and have anywhere from Twin Hills Apartments’ 66-units at 2210 E. 36th St. to the 258 units at the John J. Barton Annex at 501N. East

Like other housing authorities across the country, Street. Although Lockefield Gardens remained aban!he City of Indianapolis Piv1siop,QfI|^^ befotp it was redeveloped. Foxnumber of unoccupied public housing units in their Toumer said there are currently no unoccupied 15 operated communities. * ~ complexes in Marion County which are owned or Officials say they are stepping up their efforts to operated by her office, get residents in those units as well as getting the The majority of the tenants in public housing are funding from the Office of Housing and Urban African American, according to occupancy statistics Development to make renovations on units that need from the Division of Housing. African Americans it. make up 98 percent of the residents in multi-family Public housing, for the most part, was federally public housing and 68 percent of the elderly tenants, funded up until the early 1980s. “At that point, we a fact that in 1975 caused Federal District Court really began to see the decline of funding for public Judge S. Hugh Dillin to rule against the then-called housing and housing in general for low-income housing authority’s future development of any more families," said Katherine Fox-Toumer, executive public housing projects in Marion County, director of the Division of Housing. Dillin held, in the city's school desegregation Since 1990, the office has seen cuts as severe as 70 lawsuit, that the housing authority had jurisdiction percent in the area of housing prognuns, which has outside of the Indianapolis Public School system, but curtailed the development of newer low-income did not build public housing outside of IPS. signifihousing communities in Indianapolis. “We have cantly affecting the racial composition of the schools very limited funds available for any type of new through “de jure segregation." construction of public housing. Funds are scare in Specifically, he stated that the opening of Salem that area," Fox-Toumer said. Village at 30th Street and Baltimore Avenue (now She said that when the Division of Housing ap- called Blackburn Terrace) in 1966 necessitated the plied for a $14 million grant from HUD to begin construction of School 110, which had served an allrehabilitation of their units, they were only approved black student body since die complex opened. He for $4.8 million, “It’s never enough (money). Those also said that other schools with initially low black unmet capital needs were still there," she remarked, studem enrollments became burgeoned with them Indianapolis HUD Manager J. Nicholas Shelley shortly after the opening of neighboring public housexplained, “Congress told us. when you spend these ing projects. monies from now on, you're going to be Serving the Fox-Toumer said eligibility for applicanu seekneediest of the needy. You’re not going to serve the ing public housing is based on their income. “We broader range of income families, because we don’t look at an applicant's rental history, whether or not have enough money to reach everybody.” they are stable families and their ability to be good As a public housing agency, the Division of neighbors in terms of crime prevention. We also do Housing serves roughly 2,700 families in Marion home visits on those families before we begin to pull County. Five housing communities arc reserved for them in," she said. the elderly and the remaining 10 are multi-family The division’s overall goal, she said is to give units. Many of the housing complexes were built families a chance at public housing.

PROJECTS

Continued from A1 you aren’t scared of them they anyone else, has a positive outlook leave you alone,” said Newton. . and optimism about Blackburn. Diane Wilson, community rela- She refers to the complex, not as a lions officer for Quad 1, the police project, but as a community, and precinct which controls the 30ih says even the so-called gang kids and Baltimore area, said the com- can be made to come around by plex is a busy place. "There is not talking to them and giving them a day that goes by that there is not something constructive to do. a call for a policeman in those ‘There arc a lotof positive things apartments," Wilson said. here" she says and adds “the comThe complex no longer employs m unity has been cleaned-up someany security officers, but has regu- what.” lar police patrols, said Brenda But U seems to most residents. Johnson, Blackburn’s apartment fife in the community keeps getmanager. ting worse. Looking back nine Johnson says life at Blackburn years to when she first moved in. Terrace is not all bad. “There are Lane says some residents, like her, some good kids here. It's what you planted flowers in the backyard make h," die said. and the place had a more homey As a child the and her family atmosphere. But now she says she lived in the complex when it was can hardly sit on her patio for fear tint bulk. Now ironically, die is of befc* hit by flytng debris, and poMto firings back where she began Ufe, albeit in flowers are definitely out of the a different capacity She. more than question. She prefers to keep to

herself and looks out for her 9-year-old daughter, Nia, who is in an academically talented program in School 92. Like Sharon Jackson and her sons. Lane wants to move out but, as always, money is a problem. “The rent is the best thing about this place,” says Lane. The Housing Authority, the governmental organ which Oversees the units, computes rem according to income and does not evict residents just because they cannot pay their rent. “They work with you.” Lane said. According to Johnson, this arrangement provides security for many residents. “When people are on ‘zero income’ the/*are not kicked out, but allowed lo stay rent-free until they are back on their feet,” she said.