HOUSING AUTHORITY SIGNS SIMPLE: EVICTION FOR DRUGS

The simply worded signs prominently affixed in two Columbus Housing
Authority apartment windows offer a stern message about the consequences
for tenants who abuse drugs: "EVICTED FOR DRUG VIOLATION."

Housing Authority Director Earl Weeks, former Housing Director Shields Sims
and the Columbus Police Community Oriented Police Enforcement team
(C.O.P.E.) placed the signs in homes where drug arrests were made and
tenants got the boot.

"We are trying to send the message that the authority will not tolerate
drug use in our neighborhoods," Weeks said as he walked with officers to
put one of the signs in the window.

In one of the cases, tenant Latasha Brooks was evicted after Issac Lamont
Grady of 1708 Sixth Ave. N. was arrested in her home. Officers had received
an emergency call at Brooks' apartment on May 9. They detected "a strong
smell of marijuana" and found more than an ounce of the drug in the pipes
of the toilet.

Two arrests were made on April 27 at a home nearby. Police officers found
drug paraphernalia inside the house while executing a search warrant. One
of the two men arrested was 49-year-old Sylvester Saffore, the tenant.
Saffore was evicted after his arrest.

Weeks said the Housing Authority is putting up the new signs following
renewed support for drug policy enforcement in public housing from the
nation's highest court.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled without dissent on March 26 that local housing
agencies can use aggressive eviction policies to rid public housing of
illegal drug users.

The decision reversed a previous 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling
that said tenants could not be held responsible if they had no knowledge of
drug abuse at the home.