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

DATE: SUNDAY, August 7, 1994                   TAG: 9408090023
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOMING IN ON HOUSING

LOCALITIES can zone boarding houses and rooming houses out of existence, but not the people who need low- and moderate-priced housing. So the rehabilitation of five rundown buildings in Roanoke as single-room-occupancy housing is a worthy achievement that meets a human need and benefits the community.

It took only five years and more than 15 government and private organizations to accomplish the task.

The nonprofit Blue Ridge Housing Development Corp. and its executive director, Alvin Nash, performed the herculean task of bringing together resources and clearing bureaucratic hurdles to provide this housing and, in the process, return to a useful purpose five buildings that were nearing condemnation.

But the people at the housing-development corporation and its parent agency, Total Action Against Poverty, are the first to say that the job is hardly begun - and that only slow headway will be made without the enthusiastic support of local governments, regionwide, and the active involvement of the private sector.

Across the nation, Americans are showing a growing wariness of the federal government's ability to fix what is wrong in their communities, and a renewed belief in the strength and spiritual nourishment to be gained in a secure and loving home. Western Virginians are no exception. Those family values often can be nurtured by using the resources at hand to ensure that everyone has a home in at least sound physical condition.

In Roanoke, more than 22 percent of the housing stock was built in 1939 or earlier, and close to 14 percent from 1940 to 1949, according to the 1990 census. This itself is not a problem: Roanoke's older homes account for much of the city's charm. But they must be kept up if they are to be an asset.

The census counted more than 44,000 total housing units in Roanoke. Of those, the city's building department has identified 1,500 as substandard: "condemned, condemnable or in imminent danger of becoming condemnable." Of the 1,500, some 1,100 were deemed suitable for rehabilitation.

These figures are included in the city's Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy, a document required by the dreaded "feds" to qualify for various housing programs. This excellent needs-assessment, and the federal programs behind it, are among the tools to help build a successful housing strategy. But they are resources, not solutions. Strong community commitment is needed to bring decent housing within reach of all our neighbors, a commitment that cannot come solely from local governing bodies.

For that goal to be reasonably attainable, bankers and developers must join with antipoverty agencies to put moderately priced homes within the reach of more residents of Roanoke and the surrounding region. Part of the job is teaching those who don't understand the advantages of homeownership and are mystified by the process of buying a home how to take advantage of opportunities put before them.

The Roanoke area has a stock of houses suitable for renovation; in addition, housing prices overall in the area have remained relatively affordable. In sum, an opportunity exists to significantly improve the life of this community.

The battle, as we know, begins at home.

by CNB