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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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050189
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05018900.032
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 41Evicting the Drug DealersKemp's tough action raises constitutional questions
They hang out in parking lots and playgrounds. They commandeer
vacant apartments. In some cities they have become occupying
armies, besieging entire housing complexes. They are the drug
dealers who have terrorized public-housing projects since the birth
of the crack-cocaine trade. Last week Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development Jack Kemp announced sweeping plans to drive drug
dealers out of public housing. But in his zeal to attack the drug
crisis, Kemp may have ignored serious questions of practicality,
if not constitutionality.
Kemp has been inspired by the antidrug crusades waged by a
number of local public-housing authorities. Perhaps the most
successful effort has been Operation Clean Sweep, which began at
Chicago's Rockwell Gardens project. Led by the executive director
of the city's housing authority, Vince Lane, the program has
provided frequent drug raids by police and has planned for tenant
security patrols. Anyone entering a building is required to present
a photo ID at a security desk in the lobby. Since the plan was
instituted last September, the crime rate at Rockwell Gardens has
dropped 28%.
Kemp would like to see similar programs at other projects. The
catch is that he wants to finance them largely with HUD funds that
have been set aside for modernizing the complexes. To pay for the
drug war, local housing authorities would have to sacrifice the
installation of storm windows, new heating systems and other badly
needed improvements. Robert McKay, executive director of the
Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, complains of being
faced with an "impossible choice between fixing up dwellings or
fighting drugs -- and you have to do both." Moreover, housing
officials are going to have less and less money for either task.
HUD modernization funds are scheduled to be cut by $649 million
next year, to a total of $1 billion. The cost of rehabilitating
public housing across the U.S. is estimated at $20 billion. The
cost of eradicating drugs from the projects is incalculable.
The second component of the antidrug offensive is a tough
eviction policy that Kemp called for last week. It would speed the
expulsion of any person convicted, or even suspected, of dealing
or using drugs. Moreover, anyone who shared the apartment with the
drug offender could also be ousted. Mary Brunette, Kemp's
spokeswoman, pooh-poohs the civil liberties questions raised by
that policy. Says she: "The rights of law-abiding families in
public housing are at least as important as the rights of
criminals."
But what about the rights of law-abiding family members whose
relatives are accused of a drug offense? Should they be held
culpable for the crime? "We're concerned about those who might be
innocent and evicted," says Wade Henderson of the A.C.L.U. "The
next step from public housing for many people is homelessness."
Kemp's desire to rid the projects of drug dealers and encourage
parental vigilance is commendable. But the strategy he unveiled
last week seems likely to provoke legal challenges that could
hamper its implementation -- and throw some innocent tenants out
on the street.