LEBANON, Tenn. -
The Lebanon Housing Authority is looking to implement an ID program for anyone 13-years-old and older living in the housing as an attempt to help keep residents safe.
According to police, a majority of crimes committed in Lebanon public housing is done by people who do not live there.
"The biggest problem or complaint we have is that most of the problems caused in public housing are by people who are not on the lease, who aren't residents. So we're trying to get a handle on those folks that aren't supposed to be here," Henry Harding of the Lebanon Housing Authority said.
Officials said their residents simply want a quiet and safe place to live and they feel the best way to ensure that quality of life is to provide them with identification cards.
"So that when the police have an incident or they come up on someone they can then verify that they are residents of public housing," Harding explained to Nashville's News 2.
Harding said he feels like an ID system and guest passes will make residents more accountable to who they allow in and around their homes.
"If [residents] issue [guests] a card and they're caught on housing authority property violating police laws then the resident's going to be held responsible and could be evicted," he said.
Several residents that Nashville's News 2 spoke with on Monday said did not mind the ID program, especially considering more than 40% of all murders committed in Lebanon since 1998 have occurred on public housing property.
"We're not trying to limit the people coming in here on legitimate reasons, we will be issuing visitor cards to the tenant they can then pass out to those people they feel have a need to be in here," Henry said.
In addition to requiring an ID, the housing authority would also like a full time police officer who works on their behalf.
Once the authority submits their idea to the city, there will be a 45 day period where renters can voice their opinion on the proposal.
The housing authority hopes the have a free ID distributed to all residents by April 1.
