CITY ON THE RIGHT TRACK WITH LOW-COST HOUSING

The Missouri Housing Development Commission met in Cape Girardeau the other night and was told, among other things, that public housing is needed here to meet the dwelling needs of low-income individuals. We hesitate before accepting that point. Cape Girardeau has a number of programs, public and private, that lend housing assistance to citizens with low incomes. We would like to see more solid data on the numbers of people falling through the cracks of these programs before moving toward a public housing program.

This is an issue with a great many lives. Many of the arguments made before the Housing Development Commission were made two decades ago in this community. That is not to say they are without merit or not worthy of public debate. The case can not be made, however, that the community has done nothing to address low-income housing needs.

In debating the issue last year, the City Council adopted a three-pronged approach to providing low-income housing. The plan includes:

Adoption of a minimum property maintenance code;

Application to the Missouri Community Development Block Grant Development program;

And, efforts to secure local funds for housing assistance.

Block grants have been particularly useful in this endeavor. During the 1980s, the city used four such grants, totaling $1.8 million, to rehabilitate more than 100 homes and pave 17 streets in the south part of the city and the Red Star neighborhood. Just this summer, the city got another block grant, this one worth more than $800,000, that will be used to upgrade up to 60 home in the neighborhood of College and Jefferson streets. That is in addition to a Rental Rehabilitation grant that will total $150,000 for renovation of apartment dwellings in low-income areas.

Those are efforts being made by the city alone. Low-income individuals also have access to the housing programs of the East Missouri Action Agency, which administers federal Section 8 rental assistance funding and other forms of aid. There are also private agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, which works with individuals to restore older dwellings for the permanent acquisition of applicants. One estimate provided to the Housing Development Commission was that the homeless population of Cape Girardeau tops 300. Again, some documentation on this claim would be welcome. The St. Louis-based New Life Evangelistic Center established a homeless shelter here this summer for the purpose of addressing these supposed needs. Nothing was mentioned at the hearing of that agency being overrun. The Salvation Army and perhaps other organizations also provide shelter on a limited basis.

Let us hope these are days when more than lip service is paid to accountability. We need to know that when tax dollars are expended, the most use and most proper use is being made of them. If the contention can be documented that low-income housing needs are not being met by current programs, people should step forward with that evidence and the city government should move to furnish additional assistance. We believe, however, that Cape Girardeau officials are taking the right approach on the issue of low-cost housing.