Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded $804,200 in grants to fight drug abuse and other crimes in public housing in Albany, Camilla, Montezuma, Moultrie, Pelham and Quitman, GA.

The communities received the following grants:

• Albany…………………..$265,800
• Camilla………………….$137,400
• Montezuma……………..$118,200
• Moultrie…………………$111,300
• Pelham…………….…….$ 63,000
• Quitman………………...$108,500

Cuomo made the announcement in a satellite news conference with Congressman Sanford Bishop, who represents the six cities.

"These grants are good news for some of the poorest families in Georgia and bad news for drug dealers who terrorize them," Cuomo said. "We will fight drug abuse with prevention and treatment programs and with a crackdown on drug dealers and other criminals. We are telling drug dealers in HUD housing to find another line of work or be sent to another type of subsidized housing - a prison cell."

Congressman Bishop said: "By helping stamp out drug trafficking and use in our public housing developments, these funds can make a real contribution toward reducing crime and creating safer neighborhoods. This is a comprehensive program that provides more security personnel; more drug-related investigations; more fences, lighting and other physical barriers to trafficking, and more drug education, prevention and treatment programs. The idea is not just to chase these criminals from one corner to another, but to put them out of business for good."

Cuomo said the recent Congressional approval of the Department's $24.5 billion budget for the 1999 fiscal year, which he called "the best HUD budget in 10 years," will speed the transformation of public housing.

"HUD is transforming public housing from isolated ghettos of poverty, drugs, despair and crime into safe and economically integrated communities of opportunity," Cuomo said.

Nationwide, HUD is awarding $305.2 million in Drug Elimination Grants this year - more than in any previous year.

Vice President Al Gore, Cuomo and Attorney General Janet Reno announced a four-part enforcement and prevention strategy to fight crime and drugs in public housing in June 1997. The grants announced today are one element of that strategy.

The Drug Elimination Grants are awarded on a competitive basis, based on the seriousness of the drug and crime problem facing a housing authority or assisted housing development, and the strength of local plans to address the problem.

HUD has awarded more than $1.6 billion in Drug Elimination Grants since 1989, including the grants being awarded this year.

In public housing, the Drug Elimination Grants are used for: drug prevention, intervention and treatment programs; reimbursing law enforcement agencies for providing additional security; hiring security guards and investigators; resident anti-crime patrols; and physical improvements to housing developments to enhance security - such as fencing, lighting and improved locks.

HUD's budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 increases funding for HUD's key programs and renewals of Section 8 rental assistance by a total of more than $2 billion in the budget over 1998 levels. Spending was increased on most HUD programs and wasn't cut in any programs.

Legislation passed in the same bill as HUD's budget will:

• Transform public housing by reducing segregation by race and income, encouraging and rewarding work, bringing more working families into public housing, and increasing the availability of subsidized housing for very poor families. In addition, the bill improves living conditions in public housing, gives the poorest families neighbors who will be role models of working families, and reduces crime. The bill also allows HUD to continue to tear down the largest failed public housing projects and replace them with new townhouse-style developments.

• Expand the supply of affordable housing by enabling 90,000 more families to get Section 8 rental assistance vouchers that will subsidize their rents in privately owned apartments - the first increase in vouchers in four years.

• Increase homeownership by raising the limit on home mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration from the current range of $86,317 in low-cost housing areas to $170,362 in high-cost areas. The bill increases the loan limits to a range of $109,032 in low-cost areas to $197,621 in high-cost areas. The higher ceiling on FHA-insured home mortgages opens the door of homeownership to thousands of families needing FHA insurance to get mortgages, but locked out now because the current loan limits have not kept pace with rising home prices.

Albany

• $265,800 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Housing Authority of the City of Albany to fund security and preventive measures to address drug-related activities. On-site patrols will minimize drug activity in the housing developments.

Camilla

• $137,400 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Housing Authority of the City of Camilla to fund additional law enforcement for housing authority neighborhoods and an array of prevention activities designed to overcome the risk factors which cause drug sales and use among housing authority residents.

Montezuma

• $118,200 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Flint Area consolidated Housing Authority to fund a program that will confront drug crime problems from a threefold perspective.

Moultrie

• $111,300 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Housing Authority of the City of Moultrie to fund a comprehensive security and preventive-based approach to reduce/eliminate drug-related crime.

Pelham

• $63,000 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Housing Authority of the City of Pelham to fund a comprehensive approach to reduce/eliminate drug-related activities.

Quitman

• $108,500 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Housing Authority of the City of Quitman to fund additional law enforcement, physical improvements and drug prevention services.