Pointing Towards Hope

Editor's note: This profile was originally published in 2002. We've left it as it was written; the people, programs, and equipment described reflect that moment in time. 

Sometimes there is a negative stigma placed on public housing that is hard to overcome.

But for Patricia Landry, the executive director of the Housing Authority of Jefferson Parish, government housing is a place of hope for the families that live there.

“Public housing isn’t just some place for poor people to go and die,” she said. “It is a place of hope. It gives people a place to live and raise their family.”

In fact, you could argue that government housing does more than provide shelter. It creates a community. It can create a starting place for youth to excel and achieve their goals in life.

This sense of community is something that is important to the approximately 1,500 residents of the Acre Road Complex in Marrero, LA., a city just outside of New Orleans and part of Landry’s jurisdiction. That is why, as part of the 1999 and 2000 Capital Fund Program, the community invested in strengthening itself with the purchase of four new recreational entities: a basketball court and three play structures.

The three play structures, which were purchased from Landscape Structures, have done more for the Acre Road Complex than give their children a place to spend their afternoons. The playgrounds have provided additional hope to people who need a little more hope in their lives.

"The playgrounds have made the community a better place," Landry said. "The children were elated when we put them in. I think that having nice playgrounds plays a big part in their self-esteem. Where you live represents you, and when there are nice playgrounds and facilities around, it affects the way people look at public housing."

The playgrounds, besides giving the children a wholesome place to release energy and socialize with one another, offer an excuse for parents and children to spend time with each other. Landry has been encouraging this by sending notices to the parents in the complex to accompany their children to the playground. The parents accompanying the children do more than just provide supervision-it gives parents and children time together.

It also serves as an opportunity for parents to teach these young children about how to take care of the playgrounds. And Landry says that if children learn to take care of a nice playground, then they will be more likely to take care of other things in their lives as well.

The three play structures were designed and built to serve different age groups. They all include signage featuring characters from a children's television show, encouraging children to practice playground safety.

However, Landry believes that there needs to be additional signage- from the parish- that will help avoid big problems. Recently, one of the new playgrounds was burned to the ground by a vandal who placed gasoline all over the play structure and torched it. Although insurance from the housing authority is getting the structure rebuilt, Landry believes that there needs to be some ordinances posted by the parish that will clearly outline the hours of operation for the playground and specifics concerning the type of behavior that is allowed at the site.

"We need to do more to keep these playgrounds free from the people that don't use them for playing on," she said. "We need to get the police more involved. We need to post signs concerning beer bottles and other litter not being permitted."

Landry said that the complex is making a valiant effort to stay drug-free. She said that the parents at the complex are doing well at calling police when suspicious activity happens, but that there is always more they can do. She hopes that closer patrol of the areas in the future, along with the additional signage, will help.

Other than the one incident of vandalism, however, the three playgrounds are easy to maintain, according to Landry. She said that the area rarely needs more maintenance than weed-eating around the loose-fill border area and the occasional top-off of the engineered-wood fiber used as safety surfacing.

"The playgrounds are mostly self-maintained at this time," Landry said. "The wood fiber that we used is insect-free. We don't have to worry about the bugs and other things harming the children."

In fact, the playgrounds seem to do nothing but good for the children of Acre Road Complex.

"As a whole, the playgrounds have meant so much to our community," Landry said. "They have given something for our residents to have pride in and look forward to playing on."

And you could say that in a small way, the playgrounds gave additional hope to the complex's children.

"Plus, it made me feel really good when we put them in," Landry said. "You could see the joy in the faces of the children when they were being bu i It. That was just great.