DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709250502

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   56 lines

LANDLORDS AND TENANTS SEPARATED BY GRIPES NORVIEW MEETING TRIES TO DRAW BOTH SIDES INTO WORKING TOGETHER.

The tenants and landlords said they could handle the little annoyances as well as bigger neighborhood problems if they worked together.But none seemed willing to do so when they hashed over their differences at a Tenants Town Hall Meeting Wednesday evening.

About 40 people, mostly renters, attended the session at the Wellington Oaks Multi-Purpose Center. The forum was sponsored by the Five Points Partnership, a coalition formed to improve Norview and nearby neighborhoods.

What was billed as mediation for the opposing forces turned into a gripe session despite frequent intervention from Chris Caswell of WAVY TV's ``Renter's Rights'' feature. She served as moderator. Except for landlord Jack Jacovides, panelists hardly got a word in.

Vivian Anderson, who used to live in Berkley, said she was evicted while trying to end drug problems in her neighborhood. She pleaded with the crowd to organize themselves into tenants' associations and then work with landlords.

Other tenants said management companies don't care about conditions inside homes or neighborhoods.

And tenants are afraid to speak up because they fear eviction, said Anderson. She said her life was threatened and she was ignored when she complained to officials about the repercussions of reporting drug activity.

``If more than one come together. . . ,'' interjected Caswell.

It didn't work.

``Is the landlord responsible for the loud music, the parties?'' asked one man.

``What about repairing door knobs, locks, leaky refrigerators?'' asked another man.

``You don't have to go to college to put a screwdriver to it,'' replied a landlord.

``Communicate,'' pleaded Caswell.

A landlord in the crowd wondered what happened to the city agency that used to police tenants' housekeeping habits.

A tenant quickly pointed out that since Norfolk doesn't require occupation permits throughout the city, landlords get away with renting unclean apartments.

But ``ninety-nine percent of tenants'' don't clean their units when they leave, said Jacovides.

Trudy Richardson, a police crime-prevention officer who helped organize the meeting, tried to end the session on a positive note:

``It's back where it was - neighbor watching out for neighbor.'' Renters, she said, often don't feel part of the network. They need to use tenants associations as a base for forming neighborhood block watches.

``Management feels good about that.''

Two landlords agreed.

``Work together with us and we can do a lot more,'' said Lynn Rapp, one of them.

Jacovides tried to conciliate:

``Lots of times, the best answers come from tenants.''

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