Grass-Roots Management

Too often, public housing projects turn out to be much like low-income dwellings run by private absentee land lords: poorly maintained by owner and tenant alike. So it was in St. Louis, where the 33-building, $40 million Pruitt-Igoe project, intended two decades ago to be a model for the nation, now stands abandoned and partially demolished. Embarrassed by the fiasco, St. Louis housing officials are trying something new: turning the management of projects over to the tenants themselves.

The 9,000 residents -- nearly all of them black and poor -- of four of the city's largest public housing developments have been running their own show for more than a year with considerable success. At each project, a salaried tenant-manager, chosen by his neighbors, heads a staff of paid workers and volunteers who do everything from mowing the lawns to patrolling the halls. Besides providing jobs, the system has led to reduced crime, cleaner and greener surroundings, and a general upsurge of civic pride. The projects are not yet free of drug traffic, and some tenants still refuse to cooperate with the new management, but the Federal Government has begun to think about trying the idea elsewhere.

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