HUNTERS POINT CASE TESTS DRUG EVICTIONS

Federal Court Challenge To '91 HUD Rule

San Francisco -- The San Francisco Housing Authority's attempt to evict a
pregnant Hunters Point woman because police allegedly found heroin in the
jacket of a visitor has become the latest test case of a controversial
federal drug eviction policy.

A federal judge issued a restraining order last November temporarily
barring the eviction of the woman and her three children from their
two-bedroom apartment in the Hunter's View project. The judge is
considering an injunction that would ban eviction indefinitely and could
further erode a policy weakened earlier this year by a federal appeals court.

"(The issue is) Can an individual and her family be evicted based on the
conduct of a third party?" Robert Eisenbach, the tenant's lawyer, said.

But the housing authority's general counsel, Carl L. Williams, said the
issue is whether public housing residents can turn a blind eye to the use
of their apartments for drug dealing.

"Part of the responsibility of being a resident of public housing is that
you should be accountable for what's going on in your unit," Williams said.

The federal "one-strike" policy, established by the Department of Housing
and Urban Development in 1991 and affecting about 3 million low-income tenants,

allowed local public housing authorities to evict tenants for illegal drug
activity by any household member or guest, on or off the premises.

In a case from Oakland, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 24 that
evictions were allowed only when the tenant knew or should have known about
the drug activity. The ruling, binding in nine Western states, was the
first by any appellate court to limit the scope of the HUD policy.

However, the appellate ruling did not necessarily protect tenants from
eviction if drugs were found in their apartment.

On March 23, 2000, San Francisco police entered an apartment with a search
warrant looking for two alleged drug dealers. They found the couple, and
said they also found heroin in the man's jacket.

The 32-year-old tenant, then seven months' pregnant, was upstairs sleeping
when police awakened her. The woman said she later learned that her
3-year-old daughter had let the couple enter to use the telephone, without
her knowledge or permission.

She denied knowing about the drugs or allowing drugs on the premises. She
was not arrested or charged with any crime.

The Housing Authority sent the woman an eviction notice in June, saying she
had violated her lease by failing to assure a drug-free apartment.