
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990                   TAG: 9004250605
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HUD SETTLEMENT OK'D

Roanoke public housing tenants moved one step closer Tuesday to collecting the more than $200,000 they were overcharged for electricity in the early 1980s.

At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Judge James Turk approved an agreement in which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development agreed to pay $216,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit filed eight years ago.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 1,100 families from Roanoke's seven low-income housing projects, claimed that the city Redevelopment and Housing Authority acted improperly when it imposed surcharges for electricity used in excess of a monthly allowance.

Although the actual amount of the overcharge has been debated, $216,000 was an acceptable figure, said Henry Woodward, head of the Roanoke Valley's Legal Aid office and counsel for the tenants.

The money will be divided among the residents, with tenants receiving anywhere from several dollars to $500, Bayard Harris, a Roanoke attorney who represented the housing authority, said. After a lump sum is received from HUD and the tenants are notified, checks may be distributed within the next eight months.

In the 1982 suit, the tenants accused the housing authority of improperly computing electricity needs and then overcharging them by tacking on surcharges from 1981 to 1984. The lawsuit claimed that an allowance imposed by the housing authority was not enough to meet the basic needs of the tenants.

Woodward, who said the actual amount in question was closer to $280,000, described the settlement as "an attempt by HUD to limit the damage by saying what they will give and dividing it up."

by CNB