HUD ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICOLAS RETSINAS ANNOUNCES $1.8 MILLION IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE TO FRESNO COUNTY AND $250,000 FOR PROGRAM TO FIGHT CRIME IN FRESNO

FRESNO -- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Assistant Secretary Nicolas Retsinas today announced $1.8 million in economic development assistance to Fresno County and $250,000 in crime-fighting grants to Fresno.

The $1.8 million loan guarantee to the County on behalf of the City of Clovis will help finance a 10,000 square foot expansion of Mi Rancho Tortillas' manufacturing facilities and assist in the purchase of new capital equipment. County officials said that the expansion should create 57 new jobs for low and moderate income persons over the next five years at the facility in Clovis.

In Fresno, the $250,000 Safe Neighborhood Grant to the Dakota Woods Association will assist efforts to reduce violence, illegal drug activity and other crime in and around HUD-assisted affordable housing developments. Through a partnership, this grant will be utilized to combat crime at the Dakota Woods, Dakota Meadows, Fountain West, Pleasant View and Pleasant Village assisted-housing communities as well as the Mi Casa and Westwinds Apartments in Fresno.

The assistance to Fresno County under HUD's Economic Development Loan Guarantee Fund - known as Section 108 - provides a source of financing for job creation, housing rehabilitation, and construction of public facilities and large-scale development projects. The guarantees also may be used to attract other sources of funding, including the private sector, to complete financing for major job creation activities. The majority of jobs created by each project are available to people with low and moderate incomes.

"This loan guarantee will strengthen HUD's partnership with Clovis and Fresno County as we work toward our common goal of creating new jobs," Retsinas said. "This is an example of the type of wise investment by the Clinton Administration that is helping communities around the nation."

The Safe Neighborhood grants take a comprehensive, neighborhood-based approach to reducing crime. Properties receiving grants will work in partnership with local government agencies, the police department and prosecutor's office, and other local groups interested in creating safe communities.

Fresno's Safe Neighborhood Grant will be used to provide an additional police presence at these properties using two full-time POP - Problem Oriented Policing - officers and to make security-related physical improvements. Among the improvements to be funded are installation of entry and exit gates, wrought iron fencing and upgrades and additions of exterior lighting.

In addition to the Fresno grant, Retsinas said Safe Neighborhood Grants will go to the following groups in California:

GRANT RECIPIENT	CITY	AMOUNT
Casa Community Association	Los Angeles	$250,000
Los Angeles Gardens Community Assoc.	Los Angeles	$250,000
Housing Authority of the City of LA	Los Angeles	$250,000
New Wilmington Affordable Housing, Inc.	Compton	$250,000
City of Wasco Housing Authority	Wasco	$250,000
Northridge Cooperative Homes	Richmond	$250,000
Lincoln Dakota Woods Assoc.	Fresno	$250,000
Imperial Valley Housing Authority	Brawley	$250,000
Vacaville Community Housing	Vacaville	$193,813

"HUD is cracking down on crime in assisted housing developments and making it clear that the time when drug dealers could terrorize a community is at an end," Retsinas said. "This grant will begin the process of building a safer community and will go a long way toward ending the crime and violence that all too many residents of publicly assisted housing have to face on a daily basis."

While in Fresno, Retsinas also highlighted HUD's proposed FY99 budget and the assistance it would bring to Fresno and Fresno County if passed. According to agency projections, overall HUD assistance to the area for major programs would increase from about $24.9 million this year to an estimated $29.3 million next year.