Pubdate: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 Source: Los Angeles Times, Pomona Valley Edition Copyright: 2000 Los Angeles Times Contact: 213-237-4712 Address: Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053 Website: http://www.latimes.com/ Author: Douglas Haberman DRUG-FIGHT SUCCESS BECOMES OBSTACLE *Upland Housing Authority Leader Pushes For Bill That Would Free Federal Funds For Prevention In Areas Without Problems. UPLAND -- When Xenia "Sam" Sabo took a job as a receptionist with the Upland Housing Authority right out of high school in 1973, the 100-unit public housing complex the authority ran was home to violence and fear. She eventually took over as executive director, and she and the authority transformed the complex without a penny of federal money earmarked for fighting crime in public housing. But now times are tough fiscally for Upland and Sabo feels she cannot ask a short-staffed Police Department to spend as much time as she would like in maintaining the order they all fought so hard to restore. Sabo wants to pay the police for their time, she said. About $40,000 a year would do it, Sabo said. A 1988 federal law provides money to public housing authorities to combat drug problems but the Upland Housing Authority is ineligible -- because it has no drug problem anymore. This frustrated Sabo. She took her frustration to Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) the last week in March while attending a conference in Washington, D.C. He was sympathetic and got to work on an amendment to a bill that was coming up for a vote of the House of Representatives. "It is absolutely absurd that (those) who have worked hard to eliminate drug problems in their public housing are penalized by the federal government if they are successful," Miller said. A week after Sabo's visit, Miller's office called her and gave her two hours to draft the amendment's language. She wrote it up and the next day the bill passed unanimously with Miller's amendment attached. The bill is likely to go to the Senate in May, said Miller aide John Cusey. Estes gave Miller credit but said the real hero is Sabo. "I guess she presented a very convincing case," he said. When Sabo started working for the housing authority, just 12 or 13 families terrorized the other 87 or 88 families in the one-story duplex units at North Campus Avenue and 13th Street. "Ooooh, God! Was there a problem," Sabo recalled Monday. Murders, drive-by shootings, drug dealing that made the complex a narcotics mecca, family feuding that turned bloody -- "it was nasty," she said. Housing authority staff were as frightened as residents. "You heard a car backfire and everybody dove under their desk," Sabo said. Firefighters and police officers responded to calls and while they were busy, unruly residents threw rocks at their vehicles -- if they weren't overturning them, she said. The place was so tough, Sabo said, that even police wouldn't come in without ample backup. "It was just a war zone," said Coy Estes, who was police chief at the time (he retired in 1990) and is now chairman of the housing authority board of directors. Several officers were fired upon, he said. In 1980, Sabo became the housing authority's executive director. A woman so petite that a stiff breeze might threaten her ability to stand straight, she decided she was going to turn the place around. With substantial help from police and residents, changes in legislation she pushed for that made it easier to screen public housing applicants, and plenty of grit and determination, Sabo reclaimed the complex in about three years. "I'd tell everybody" to live here, 12-year tenant Ana Guerra said Monday outside her pastel-colored unit as children played nearby. Many would-be residents are familiar with the place. "We have a five-year waiting list," Sabo said. - --- MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson