HUD not helping.

Your August cover story "Trouble on the home front" by Kevin Clarke skipped one of the biggest problems with public housing: The corruption on the local level with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) personnel being appointed by the mayor and other powerful persons, who divert these funds to their political supporters or campaign contributors.

The good-old-boy system is well established in most cities, and the poor and low-income people whom these programs are designed to serve are not receiving near the funding that is being passed down from the federal level.

It is strange that lane Walsh, the executive director of Louisville's Metropolitan Housing Coalition, was quoted in the article. She is complaining about family income being a big problem for the middle class when it was recently revealed that the Louisville metro area had 75,000 non-custodial parents not paying child support. I wonder what kind of financial stress that puts on a single parent trying to raise children and their chances of purchasing a home or paying rent.

The local HUD department heads need only look in the mirror when they wonder where the problems are.

The HUD program is no better in New Albany, Indiana, where I live, as it is more of a benevolent association for the slumlords. The Section 8 housing managers put people in housing that has such high utility bills they can't afford to live there. There are broken windows, crumbling foundations, siding falling off, no insulation, and terrible electrical wiring.

I have seen all these problems, but trying to get someone to do something about them is like beating your head against a brick wall. When I see news programs and newspaper articles about the homeless this winter, I know where a lot of the problems are--right with the Department of Housing.

Ronald S. Robb

New Albany, Ind.