APRIL 25, 1993 SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL A1Q ''fflr'Ti r-laiT-rl DOWN i mJJ Till THE PROJECTS Lii. m. mm, 3 WHA chief defends her record Sometimes it's bad and you get sick of living here because of the way people act. i bays allegations jr. i -Hi.
V. 1 It One night, people broke into my house and stole my wallet and all my money. The mini-police station doesn't make a difference. They sit out here all night and sell drugs. They harass me and call me names.
I'm not a snitch, but I live here and I feel very uncomfortable. 33 Marvin Scrlvens, 4 1 recently received a housing unit In Riverside. He Is unemployed. We have block captains and they cleanup. It's OK, but they have to do something for the children.
They're out here playing all night. So whatever kids like, they need to put money into, instead of them hanging out. It's tough raising kids as a single parent, but I try to teach them not to hang out without me watching them. 33 Therlcla Curtis, 28, lives In South-bridge Extension with her five children, ages 2 to 12. il3LF are exaggerated By CRIS BARRISH Staff rep'orter WILMINGTON Jacquelyn M.
Matthews, executive director of Wilmington Housing Authority, has a phrase for her critics. "Armchair quarterbacks," she calls them. Matthews, head of the agency since 1989, said they should walk a mile in her shoes before taking shots at her. Matthews, 52, has been under fire recently. State Rep.
Herman M. Hollo-way D-Wilmington East, called for her resignation, saying she and top staff weren't doing their jobs. And he has received dozens of complaints about WHA on a telephone hot line. Mayor James H. Sills Jr.
also jumped into the fray, saying he agreed with those who contend WHA management isn't fulfilling its duty. Sills would not discuss whether he wants the board to replace Matthews. He met with her earlier this month, and Sills called the session productive. Matthews thinks difficulties are being exaggerated, and doesn't like being a scapegoat. She says it's tough to be a landlord when the average tenant pays only $104 a month in rent.
"There's problems," Matthews agrees. "There's always been problems. But we're doing our job. If we weren't, I guarantee you the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development would have been in here long ago. HUD has a three-tier rating system, listing local authorities as troubled, standard or high-performing.
The Wilmington agency, which was considered troubled in the early '80s, has been rated as standard for several years. A spokesman for HUD in Philadelphia said the Wilmington agency has an acceptable record. Matthews, who suffered a stroke in May 1990, chastised Holloway for saying she often missed work, and criticized The News Journal for printing the allegation. "That was a low blow," she said, and produced records showing she hadn't taken an excessive a 3 i keeps young men from hanging out on IP- Two dogs tangle In Riverside project help the people, then we would be turning our back," she stressed. "But drugs are a reality everywhere." Matthews is skeptical of Sills' plan to let tenants buy their own units, or to form non-profit management corporations.
But regardless of her fate with the new board, Matthews agrees with Sills that tenants should take more responsibility for their lives. In Southbridge, she sees an old, dirty mattress lying on the side ran s3 AAA NN IIA as Drugs is one of the problems, and you get peer pressure to use them. I think jobs should start at an earlier age, because if you don't got anything to do and your mom can't afford to send you to day camp, that's how kids get in trouble. J5 Craig Stanford, 1 3, lives In South bridge with his mother, Debbie, and an older brother and younger sister. Stanford's a seventh-grader at Shue Middle School, and dreams of playing basketball for the University of North Carolina.
They should try to clean up the area a little bit. I think we need more police protection, especially late at night, 1 and some speed bumps. Sometimes you never know what's going to happen, especially when you've got drugs in the area. JJ Rosemary Johnson, 3 1 lives In Southbridge Extension with her two children. She and her fiance are saving money to buy a house or rent an apartment WHY PEOPLE SAY.
my Serta! 1 a tj Arrested envoys may be swapped Wilmington police officer Kenny Jackson amount of sick days since return- out of town for meetings with officials from other housing authorities, she said. In 1991, Matthews took 24 "universal" days which includes sick and vacation time. In 1992, she took 12 universal days. This year, she's taken only one universal day. After Holloway leveled his charge, Matthews did not return calls for comment.
She said she was out of town at the time. Matthews, who is paid $55,000 a year, began working for WHA as a clerk-typist 30 years ago. She's proud of her accomplishments and wants to continue running the agency. WHA has renovated about 200 vacant units since 1991, and has received a $4.6 million grant to continue that process. There's still a 7 percent vacancy rate, but she said that's normal because units have high turnover.
The agency has secured extra federal funds to start self-esteem, educational and drug counseling programs, as well as a police mini-station. During a recent tour of the projects, some residents thanked Matthews for helping someone they knew get housing or for visiting someone in the hospital. Matthews bristles when people focus on the crime and drugs that have ravaged the projects. Drugs have scarred several other sections of the city, she said. "If we didn't have counseling to have finished our investigations, maybe in a day or so," Khaliq said.
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hvj uiaal nf Rl 7 nn Rt 40 WE HOPE IT WON'T HAPPEN TO YOU The News JournalBRIAN PRICE the corners. -I- their owners try to keep them apart. walk, its exposed springs a potential hazard for children. "Sure, it bothers me, and it should bother the people in the units," she said. Matthews never lived in public housing.
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