Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded $1,998,761 in grants to fight drug abuse and other crimes in public housing and HUD-assisted housing in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's grants will be distributed to housing authorities and owners of HUD-subsidized housing for low-income families in the following cities:

• Lac du Flambeau……………........ $ 92,400
• Madison ..........................................$ 263,981
• Milwaukee………........................... $1,359,480
• Oneida ………................................ $ 98,400
• Superior ……................................. $ 138,900
• Tomah .….. ...............……..…...…. $ 45,600

HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development Cardell Cooper made the announcement on Cuomo's behalf at a news conference attended by Rep. Thomas M. Barrett and Director of Administration for Milwaukee David Riemer.

"These grants are good news for some of the poorest families in Wisconsin 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."

Senator Russell D. Feingold said: "This money will help many Wisconsin communities step up their efforts to prevent and fight drug-related crime. The flexible nature of these funds will allow them to be used to meet the unique needs of each housing authority."

Representative Thomas M. Barrett said: "I am very excited that our Housing Authority and Windsor Court Apartments are being awarded Drug Elimination Grant funds. Our federal government has an obligation to provide housing that is decent, safe, and free of illegal drugs. These funds will help make our neighborhoods safer and free of drugs."

Representative Jerry Kleczka said: "This will boost the efforts of public housing residents, the vast majority of whom are law abiding, who want to see the scourge of drugs eliminated from their neighborhoods."

Cuomo said 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 and assisted 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. The grants will be distributed in the next several weeks in this way: $280.6 million to 749 public housing authorities; $8 million to 39 Indian Tribes; and $16.6 million to 143 privately owned housing developments that receive HUD assistance. 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. About 900 housing authorities, 60 Indian tribes and 500 privately owned housing developments applied for the grants being awarded this year.

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.

In assisted housing, the Drug Elimination Grants are used for: drug prevention and education programs; referrals to drug treatment and counseling; and physical improvements to developments to enhance security. Individual grants for assisted housing developments are limited to a maximum of $125,000.

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.

HUD ANTI-DRUG ASSISTANCE FOR COMMUNITIES IN WISCONSIN

• LAC DU FLAMBEAU: $92,400 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Housing Authority for a proposed youth development center that will tackle multi-generational problems that lead to drug use and crime.

• MADISON:
  • $227,700 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Madison Community Development Authority for an initiative called, "Confidence, Safety and Prevention."

  • $36,281 in multifamily Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Bayview Foundation to increase after-hours security and hire a Hmong outreach worker.

• MILWAUKEE:

  • $1,234,480 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee for a program that combines both security and drug prevention programs.

  • $125,000 in multifamily Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Juneau Avenue Associates, Ltd., to expand equipment and programs at the Neighborhood Network Center located at Windsor Court Apartments.

• ONEIDA: $98,400 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Oneida Housing Authority for tenant patrol and neighborhood watch programs, and for educational field trips.

• SUPERIOR: $138,900 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Superior Housing Authority to reduce drug-related criminal activity and to provide job training and job opportunities for welfare recipients.

• TOMAH: $45,600 in Drug Elimination Grants will go to the Ho-Chunk Housing Authority to continue past efforts to establish community security, drug prevention activities designed to build cultural pride, and drug education courses.