NATION : Kemp Spends Night in Tenement

Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, once a champion of “trickle-down” economics, spent the night in a housing project as part of President Bush’s mission to take “inventory” of the nation’s homeless and impoverished.

Kemp toured housing alternatives for the poor and homeless today after sleeping overnight at the Opportunity Towers, a federally supported apartment complex for senior citizens and the handicapped.

At the Bethesda-Brown project, which houses 44 people in North Philadelphia, Kemp today called it “a great experience to be here and see how you rebuild lives.”

“My challenge is to use HUD as a catalyst to expand these projects and encourage others to start them. Of course it takes money, and we will plan to get it,” Kemp said. “I plan to be an advocate, and I want to make a difference.”