FRANKLIN COUNTY - Twenty years ago, Donna Crawford didn't imagine she would end up in her current surroundings.

"Some people are ashamed of it and I'm sorry, but I'm not. I wouldn't have imagined I'd end up here, but now I think it's the greatest thing in the world for me," she said.

As a senior citizen, Crawford is among the majority of those residents who have found a home in the Franklin County Housing Authority.

"We have more elderly and disabled people living here than ever before," FCHA Executive Director Monica Stewart said. "The primary income of our residents is Social Security, which makes sense because of our large population of elderly and disabled."

The housing authority has 684 units. Of the 1,259 residents, only 440 are children, she said.

Crawford, 74, has lived in Benton's public housing for five years. Failing health and the death of her husband prompted her to investigate housing opportunities.

"My husband, Jim, died in 2001 and I couldn't afford to keep the house or maintain it. I tried an apartment for a while, but there were too many steps," she said. "I feel secure here. Nobody bothers me. If something breaks, they come and fix it."

The minimum rent paid by FCHA tenants is $50, Stewart said, and can go as high as $496 for a four-bedroom apartment.

Stewart said one of the biggest misconceptions about the housing is that it is a hotbed of criminal activity.

"People think the housing breeds drug activity, but we are seeing that less and less all the time," she said. "We work closely with the local police to make this a safe place to live and raise children."

Sharon Green, 56, moved her family, which includes granddaughter Cassie, 11, into the West Frankfort housing after an injury forced her to quit her longtime job as a nurse.

"We had to give up our home when I lost my job," she said. "I didn't plan on ending up here, but I don't know what we would have done without it."

She doesn't worry about sending her granddaughter out to play.

"There will always be crime, no matter where you live, but everybody looks out for everybody else here," Green said. "A neighborhood is what you put into it and there are good people here."

Another misconception, Stewart said, is that the housing is filled with non-working people.

"That is absolutely not the case. We have more working people than ever before," she said.

Those who are not elderly, disabled, gainfully employed or in school are required to perform eight hours of community service each month, she said.

Alana Major, 61, has lived in the Benton housing complex for not quite a year, but said she has lived in and out of public housing for almost 42 years.

"I first lived in the housing in 1966 when I was 19. My father died and left my mother a widow with eight children," she said.

Major married the "boy next door" of her West Frankfort housing unit and later returned to housing when she had children.

Her husband was in the military and she worked as an in-home caregiver.

"It's fun and convenient. I'm on a fixed income, to say the least, and I pay 114 bucks a month to live here. I couldn't find another place to live for that amount. I love the housing and I always did. You have nice neighbors and it is a good place to raise kids," she said. "I was always a people person. I always believed it's not where you live, it's how you live."

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