Winston-Salem - Haaes Group Corporate Affairs
Director. Elynor Williams (far right). Joins with (left
U right) Dr. Maprierllne Scales, president of the North
Carolina chapter of National Council of Negro Women
(NCNW). Dr. Dorothy Height, national president of
NCNW and Hellena Tidwell, local president of Delta
Sigma Theta Sorority, following Dr. Height's address
I
at the Delta Fine Arts Center. During that time Ms.
Williams presented a check to Dr. Height on behalf ef
Hanes Group for NCNW programs. The Hanes Group Is
composed of several companies, including Hanes
Hosiery. Hanes Knitwear. Hanes Printables and
.L'eggs Products. It is an operating unit of Sara Lee
Corporation of Chicago.
New Regulations Developed
President Reagan Endorses Efforts
• * _ * < ” —~ _—————
Of Resident Management Groups
Special To The PoM
2 President Reagan and Cm^rees
tnan Jack Kemp endorsed the ef
fort of successful resident man
agement organizations and pledged
their support for resident manage
ment and homeownership for public
housing residents at a 16-city tele
• More than 1,000 public housing
residents and local officials from
across the country met with policy
makers in Washington, D.C., with
out ever leaving their hometowns
during the live telecast sponsored by
the National Center for Neighbor
hood Enterprise (NCNE) and broad
cast from the! Biznet studio in
Washington,
The conference, "We Made it
Work: The Revolution in Public
Housing,’’ brought leaders of reai
Boston, JerseyQty, Loufc^ejSew
¥ Orleans, St. Louis, and Washington,
D.C., together with a panel of policy
experts: Congressman Kemp;
NCNE president Robert L. Wood
son; June Koch, assistant secre
tary of the Department of Housing
and Urban Development; Stuart
Butler of the Heritage Foundation;
and Paid Pryde of Pryde, Roberts
and Company, a Washington
based consulting firm specializing in
small business development.
. The resident managers and policy
specialists answered questions from
conference participants in each city
Robert Woodson, in his keynote to
the conference, said, “There’s a
revolution going on in America to
day, particularly in public housing,
where throughout the nation, resi
dents are coming together, or- •
ganizing their communities into pu
blic housing management corpora
tions. And they are successfully re
ducing crime, lowering mainte
nance costs, and reducing the over
. all operating coat of public hous
ing.’’
Woodson said that resident man
agement corporations were suc
ceeding where others had (ailed in
improving the quality of life in
public housing communities. And
the resident managers agreed. __
“From a jungle to a neighbor
hood,” is how Bertha Gilkey of the
Cochran Plata Tenant Management
Corporation in St. Louis described
the transition.
President Reagan acknowledged
this community revitalization in his
taped address to the conference.
“Let’s give families who live in
public housing a chance to feel the
pride of homeownership,” the Pre
sident said. “As the leaders of the
resident management movement
can attest, not only can that pride
transform individual homes, it can
work magic on whole neighbor
hoodMui well.”
gjPfhen we give people a stake in
their homes, we give them a stake in
the future,” said President Reagan.
“Resident management is clearly
an idea whose time has come.”
Congressman Kemp said that resi
dent management groups represent
“signs of hope in the inner cities.”
Kemp discussed the provisions of his
Urban Homesteading Bill, which
would allow public housing resi
dents to purchase their own homes
once resident management has
paved the way. Kemp said that
homeowneship would not cut the
stock of housing for low income
Americana. “It is not a zero-sum
game,” he said. “The renter be
comes an owner and gets a stake in
our participatory democracy.”
Kemp urged continued support for
resident management groups, say
ing, “There should be no cutback in
these programs that serve poor peo
ple.”
HUD Assistant Secretary June
Koch described efforts under way at
HUD to remove some of the ob
stacles to resident management. She
-I -v
announced that HUD is developing
new regulations to assist resident
management groups and to encour
age cooperation between public
housing authorities and resident
management organizations. “We
have worked closely with Bob Wood
son and the tenant management
Breups*’’ she said, “and we have
learned from them.”
The participants chosen for
HUD’s Public Housing HomeoWner
ship Demonstration will be an
nounced next week, Koch said. She
added that HUD is also developing a
demonstration project for small
business development, an important
element of neighborhood revitaliza
tion.
Woodson stressed the importance
of grassroots involvement In solv
ing the problems of poverty that
plague America toddle said, “We
sition that when people a*« allowed
to have input into solving tfieir own '
problems, they are far more
capable of finding solutions than
those who are not living with the
problem.” The best role for the go
vernment, he said, is in facilitating
the solutions designed by the resi
dents themselves.
The resident managers whose
groups have become models of
success and who appeared at the
conference to share their knowledge
and experience are: Kimi Gray,
Kenilworth-Parksfde, Washington,
D.C.; Mildred Hailey, Bromley
Heath, Boston; Bertha Gilkey,
Cochran Plaza, St. Louis; Rev.
Robert Blount, A. Harry Moore,
Jersey City; Bonnie Downs, Iroquois
Homes, Louisville; and Viney Rey
nolds, B. W. Cooper, New Orleans.
If you have any questions about
the teleconference or about resident
management of public housing,
please contact Pam Taylor at NCNE
headquarters in Washington, D.C.
(202) 331-1103.
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