DATE: Tuesday, April 29, 1997               TAG: 9704300803

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   76 lines

IDEAS WELCOMED ON HOW TO SPEND CLEANUP FUNDS 10 NORFOLK NEIGHBORHOODS ARE TARGETED TO GET MOST OF A $9.7 MILLION U.S. GRANT.

During the next fiscal year, Norfolk plans to spend more than $9.7 million in federal funds to clean up neighborhood blight, help low-income people buy or repair their homes, create jobs, and feed and shelter the homeless.

Residents have a chance today to tell the City Council how they think the money should be spent.

Ten neighborhoods are targeted to receive the bulk of the federal money in fiscal year 1998, which begins July 1, under a proposal recommended by city and Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority officials.

But the city's efforts to revive the neighborhoods carries a hefty price tag.

According to the city's proposal, nearly a third of the $7.5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds available - or $2.4 million - would be used to cover Norfolk's costs of administering the funds and delivering services.

About $2.1 million of that would pay the salaries of housing authority employees who administer the program and who work directly with residents who benefit.

Those employees are involved in buying and selling property, helping to relocate displaced residents, and assisting residents with obtaining loans and rehabilitating homes.

Some City Council members question whether too much money is being spent running the program instead of going to residents in the neighborhoods.

``It looks like we're constantly filling the pockets of NRHA administrators,'' Councilman Paul R. Riddick said last week when the council was briefed on the plan.

Riddick said the city should look more closely at directing the federal funds to ``human infrastructure'' with less overhead than programs geared toward improving neighborhoods' physical infrastructure.

For example, Riddick proposed spending more than the $35,000 included in the plan for the Tidewater AIDS Crisis Taskforce, which the group wants to use over the next three years to help pay a manager's salary.

An official with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which monitors how the money is spent, said Monday that Norfolk has done a good job in handling its funds.

The amount of money the housing authority would spend to administer and deliver the community development program ``is not unusual given the nature and complexity of the program,'' said Joe Aversano, director of the Community Planning and Development Division in HUD's Virginia office, in Richmond.

``We're confident that Norfolk has reviewed their procedures and operations and staff and are about as efficient as you get, given the nature of the program,'' Aversano said.

Under Norfolk's proposal, the Park Place neighborhood would get $805,416.

The city has been trying to reverse urban blight in the area since 1973. Included are funds for low-interest loans and grants to homeowners to rehabilitate homes and to buy and demolish dilapidated property.

Berkley would get $754,780, including $201,460 for the housing authority to buy property for new commercial and residential development.

The Lamberts Point neighborhood would receive $571,516, while central and south Brambleton would receive a combined $594,239.

The city and housing authority's plan also would pump money into Ballentine Place ($45,433); Cottage Line ($85,147); Huntersville ($78,200); West Ocean View ($242,890); and Olde Huntersville ($183,485).

In addition to neighborhoods, eight groups involved in social and humanitarian work, including the AIDS Crisis Taskforce, would receive slightly more than $227,000.

They also include Plumb Line Ministries, the Salvation Army, the Haven Family Center, the Dwelling Place, the Homeless Prevention Program, the St. Columba Day Shelter and the Women-in-Crisis Shelter. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

HEARING TODAY

Norfolk residents today can tell the City Council how they think

the money should be spent.

A public hearing will be held at 2:30 p.m. in the council's

meeting room, on the 11th floor of City Hall.

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