Residents of Roanoke's biggest public housing complex will soon have a resource center for computers, job search advice and other services to help them become self-sufficient.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded a $400,000 grant to the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority to set up a Neighborhood Networks Center at Landsdowne Park on Salem Turnpike.

The center will be modeled on a center at the Villages at Lincoln, and will be open not only to public housing residents, but Landsdowne's surrounding neighborhood, said Melody Stovall, the authority's director of self-sufficiency.

Once it's up and running in Landsdowne's community center, the networks center will offer a computer lab offering computer training classes and Internet access where people can apply for jobs, set up e-mail accounts or use the computers for personal correspondence.

Besides offering a computer lab, staff will organize programs such as homework assistance for school-age children and job quest classes for adults looking for work or better jobs, Stovall said.

At the center at Lincoln, Stovall said, staff also have offered classes in conversational Spanish and genealogy.

The grant will cover the purchase of computers and other hardware for the center, as well as the hiring of a program coordinator and some part-time resident project assistants, she said.

The authority also received two other grants totaling $150,000 to continue the salaries of three self-sufficiency coordinators who link public housing residents and Section 8 voucher program participants with services, training and employment.