Affordable Housing At Crisis Stage For Blacks
More than 40 percent of all black
and Hispanic households in the
United States pay more for housing
costs than the maximum amount con
sidered affordable under federal
standards, and one-fifth of black and
Hispanic households live in substan
dard housing, according to a study
issued recently by the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities.
Housing problems are especially
severe among poor minority
households, with nearly four out of
five bearing housing costs outside the
affordable range, the Center’s
analysis of new government data
shows. Under standards set by the U.
S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, housing is considered
affordable if it does not consume
more than 30 percent of a household’s
income.
Poor white households bear hous
ing costs as high as poor blacks and
Hispanics, the study found. Among
all three groups, about 80 percent of
households pay at least 30 percent of
income for housing and approximate
ly two-fifths pay at least 70 percent.
However, high housing cost
burdens affect black and Hispanic
communities more heavily than
white communities, because blacks
and Hispanics are much more likely
to be poor, according to the Center
report.
Some 42 percent of all black and
Hispanic households - both the poor
and non-poor - paid at least 30 per
cent of their incomes for housing in
1985, thereby exceeding the federal
affordability standard, the Center
found. Some 27 percent of all white
households bore housing costs of this
magnitude.
Substandard Housing Conditions
Compound Problem
The study also reported that blacks
and Hispanics in general -- both poor
and nonpoor - were much more likely
than whites to live in substandard
housing. While black and Hispanic
households constitute 17 percent of all
households in the United States, they
make up 42 percent of those occupy
ing substandard housing and more
than half of those living in units with
holes in the floor or evidence of rats,
(See HOUSING, P.2)
—
RALEIGH, N.C.,
TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1989
Q
N.C.’s Semi-Weekly
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
SINGLE COPY fJC
IN RALEIGH ^90
vol. 48, no. 67 ELSEWHERE 300
Drivers With BAC Of.10 Find
N.C. DWI Conviction Rate High
Probe Finds Lucas Gave
Inaccurate Answers In ’81
BY MIKE ROBINSON
Associate Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP)-William
Lucas, nominated to be the Bush ad
ministration's civil rights chief, gave
inaccurate answers on a sworn ap
plication to be admitted to the New
York bar, th& Justice Department
acknowledged Tuesday.
The admission came to light as
lAicaff was administered a sharp snub
by his home state's two senators, who
■aid they would not introduce him to
the Senate Judiciary Committee at
the opening of hearings this Wednes
day past on his nomination to be
assistant attorney general for civil
rights.
Justice Department spokesman
Deborah Burstlon-Wade confirmed
thfct the black Republican from
Muhtyn failed to state on the New
York form in 1961 that he had once
failed the District of Columbia bar ex
am. His application to New York was
successful.
Lucas, 61, simply stated that he
was admitted to the Michigan bar in
1971 when asked if he had ever taken
another state bar examination or ap
plied to practice in another state.
Lucas also answered in the
negative when he was asked if he had
ever been a witness in a civil or
criminal court proceeding, when in
fact he had testified numerous times,
Ms. Buntion-Wake confirmed.
Ms. Burstion-Wade acknowledged
inaccuracies on the New York state
bar application but said “I don't see
that they negate four decades of
public service.”
(See FINDINGS, P.2) '
Study Shows
89 Percent
Convicted
Eighty-nine percent of all North
Carolina motorists prosecuted for
driving with a blood alcohol concen
tration (BAC) of .10 or more were
convicted by the courts in 1988, accor
ding to a report released recently by
Commissioner of Motor Vehicles
William S. Hiatt.
The report, titled “Rehabilitation,
Alcohol Test, Evaluation and
Retrieval System,” is published an
nually by the Division of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) to assess the effec
tiveness of the State’s anti-DWI pro
gram. The publication is frequently
referred to as the “RATERS
Report.”
According to 1988 statistics taken
from court records, 30,236 motorists
were convicted during the year of
driving with a BAC of .10 or more. A
total of 3,737 drivers, or il percent of
those whose cases were adjudicated
by the courts, were acquitted of driv
ing while impaired with a BAC of .10
or more, the report shows.
Conviction records are based only
on the number of DWI cases ad
judicated by the courts for a blood
alcohol concentration of .10 or more.
Bond forfeitures are counted as con
victions for the purpose of driver
license revocations. Not included in
the statistics are cases in which
defendants registered a blood alcohol
concentration of less than .10 percent.
Perquimans County, which handled
only 26 driving while impaired cases
of .10 BAC or more, led the state with
a conviction rate of 100 percent. Polk
County was second with a 99 percent
conviction record, or 103 convictions
and one acquital. Ashe and Pas
quotank Counties tied for third place
with 98.7 precent of its defendants
(See NC DWI, P.2)
DEBATE CONTMUES-John P. Green, opponent of tho City Counci’s
redistricting plan, speaks before the council here as city officials continue to hoar
bath sides ofthe issue. (Photo by TaBb Sabir-Cailoway)
30-Step Teacher Pay Plan
Favored By Lawmakers
(AP) In an effort to clear the way
for adjournment, N.C. House budget
leaders agreed to stick with their plan
for giving teachers a 30-step pay
schedule and state employees an
average six percent pay raise.
“I don’t know about y’all, but I’m
tired of coming down her,” Mid
House Appropriations Chairman
David Diamont, D-Surry, a high
school football coach. “Football prac
tice starts two weeks from now and I
intend to be there.
“I want us to go ahead and get this
ready so if we can get an agreement
on the highway package Thursday,
we can roll out an expansion budget,”
Diamont told the panel as it began its
4'vhour meeting Tuesday.
Etheridge Celle For BEP
To Be Folly Fended Here
State Superintendent Bob R.
Etheridge recently called on the
General Assembly to full fund the
Basic Education Program and label
ed as “pure fiction" the idea that
legislative leaders are proposing to
raid the highway fund to pay for
education and other state needs.
"EfeMf and “Jar magazlnas, was rsctntly hanarad lar
Ml totstaasa accampKshments at tin International banquat
atOparatian PUSH’S latti annaal canvantton in CNeaga.
"In actuality, some people are try
ing to hoodwink us into believing that
there is some giant raid on the
Highway Fund in prospect when in
actuality the raid is headed in the
other direction, from the General
Fund to the Highway Fund,” Mr.
Etheridge said.
He said it is time parents,
businessmen and school people"
stood up and said with one voice that
children are at least as important to
this state’s future as highways.” He
said he appreciates the hard work
that members of the General
Assembly have rendered and
understands their frustration.
Mr. Etheridge said a carefully
crafted public relations campaign
has been waged to "weave the fiction
that someone is trying to take money
away from highways when in fact the
opposite is true.” He said the battle
between the House and Senate over
using some money to fund schools “is
about money that has always been in
the General Fund and not the
Highway Fund.”
He said both House and Senate ver
sions of the budget currently would
underfund the BEP, the House by
some $35 million, the Senate by some
$S2 million.
“Yet, here we are weeping
crocodile tears over not paying
potholes while we plan on spending
more than $• billion on our
highways,” Mr. Etheridge said. “All
I want us to do is realise that we could
fully hind the BEP and take care of
our children’s education without har
ming the highway program.”
He said the BEP was promised by
(See FUNDING, P.2)
Members of the committee voted to
stick with the $300 million salary pro
posal. The panel subcommittee
chairmen agreed to back the House
version of funding for the Basic
Education Plan, which calls for spen
ding $77.4 million in fiscal year
1989-90 atld $188.6 million in 1990-91
for 1,500 new teachers, vocational
teachers, teaching support staff and
other expenses.
The state Senate has proposed a
25-step pay plan for teachers, and
spending $60.3 million on the BEP
this fiscal year and $183.6 million next
year.
A conference committee from the
House and Senate is negotiating an
$8.6 billion highway funding package
which includes using increased sales
taxes on vehicles for the first two
years of the 12-year plan to fund six
percent pay increases.
The highway package would
become part of the state expansion
budget for new or increased spen
ding.
The House pay proposal would put
teachers on a 30-step plan, with
teachers mmoving up one step and
getting an automatic two percent
raise each year. The only exception
would be between the fourth and fifth
years, when teachers would get a five
percent pay Increase.
The plan, which would be phased in
over the next three years, would add
2.5 percent longevity pay increase at
(See PAY PLAN, P.2)
INSIDE
AFRICA
—- BY DANIEL MAROLEN—J
South Africa’s ugly and evil system
of apartheid is again on the march...
Last Saturday, apartheid was
responsible for the deaths of 11
Africans—nine policemen and two
civilians. In addition, more than 2,000
other Africans were rounded up by
the police, and their village is now
surrounded by the South African
regime’s army.
The unwarranted slaughter and
mass arrests were sparked by a
meeting of African villagers who
assembled to air views about then
threatened forced removal from their
traditional homes on a farm known as
Leeufontein, 150 miles northwest of
Johannesburg, to the so-called “in
dependent homeland” of
Bophuthatswana.
Soon after the Africans had begun
their meeting, an armed contingent
of the regime’s police arrived at the
scene and rained bullets into the
crowd, telling them to “disperse.”
Two African civilians were shot
dead. This angered the crowd which
at once retaliated by setting ablaze a
police van with four policemen in it.
Then the crowd hacked and stoned
five other policemen dead.
In all, 11 African men lost thier
lives that way. Usually only, or most
ly, Africans get killed at such apar
theid conflicts. Hardly any whites get
killed, although these are white ver
sus black confrontations. That is how
apartheid was planned—to destroy
Africans by setting them against
each other.
A week prior to the Leeufontein in
cident, the Bush administration an
nounced its new policy toward South
Africa, pointing out that apartheid
would be ended through dialogue and
negotiation between white and black
| leaders.
But, unfortunately, the sanguinary
conflict at Leeufontein vitiated the
Bush administration’s envisioned
goal of ending apartheid through
peaceful dialogue. President P.W.
(See AFRICA, P.2)
Kemp Nixes
TitleX
Insurance
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development
Jack Kemp announced last week his
intention to terminate the Title X
Land Development Mortgage In
surance Program, a program which
authorizes HUD to insure mortgages
and finance development of building
sites, but is riddled with abuse. About
SO percent of all approved loans under
the program have defaulted, at a cost
of 190 million to the government.
Upon thorough review of Title X,
Kemp has chosen to publish a propos
ed rule to terminate the program due
to the enormity of the losses incurred,
high patterns of abuse, and the
failure of the program to benefit the
needy. Of the 58 loans insured under
the Title X program since
1977—valued at approximately $500
million—25 have defaulted. The
department estimated losses on
defaults to date to be approximately
ISO million.
Secretary Kemp directed an ex
amination of the program and Issued
(See NIXED, P.2)
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