Inside Report (7)

So-called 'gentrification' of old neighborhoods may soon be open to the poor, too. Restoration of run-down but historic neighborhoods usually means the poor get run out. But the private National Trust for Historic Preservation hopes to change that.

With $400,000 from the Department of Interior and $100,000 of its own money, the trust is expected to announce plans this month for helping the poor rehabilitate --and keep -- their homes in historic districts.

How? Neighborhood groups will be eligible for grants and low-interest loans to buy or set up tenant cooperatives to buy homes and rental apartments and rehabilitate them for low-income owners.

Much of the nation's historic housing stock is inhabited by minorities, and they should not be forced out by reha bilitation, says an official of the trust.m