U. OF MD. NURSING TO WITHDRAW FROM DRUG TREATMENT PROPOSAL

Program On Private Ship For Women Addicts Delayed Over Right To Berth In City

A major partner in a program that would help women recovering from drug
addiction aboard a former Navy vessel is pulling out of the project, its
funding in jeopardy because of uncertainty about the ship's berth in Baltimore.

The University of Maryland School of Nursing won a federal grant two years
ago to provide health care and training aboard the former hospital ship,
called the Sanctuary. But that project has been stalled for years by a
court battle with the Maryland Port Administration over whether its
organizers have a right to a permanent berth at a state-owned pier.

`Irreparable harm'

Project Life, the nonprofit organization that owns the Sanctuary, filed a
request for a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Baltimore
late Wednesday, asking a judge to order the port to allow the program to
operate on the ship until the berth issue is resolved. In the court filing,
Project Life attorneys said they made the request to preserve the nursing
grant, the loss of which would cause "irreparable harm."

The $600,000 grant to the nursing school was to finance training of student
nurses, provide basic health screening to more than 700 recovering women a
year and prepare the women to find jobs. It was also to pay for evaluation
of women for admission to the program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has told the school it
will reclaim $300,000 in grant money that is unspent if the Sanctuary
program is not in operation by fall.

Jo Martin, a spokeswoman for the nursing school, said the school can't
promise to have the program in place by that time, and has decided it must
abandon the project. "We can't assign faculty. We can't assign students,"
Martin said. "We're just going to terminate the grant. It's very
unfortunate, because we really believe in the program."

Stephen Hammer, a founder of Project Life, said he was surprised to hear
that the university planned to pull out regardless of the court action. He
said he had begun to fear a year ago that any state agencies involved with
the project would come under pressure because of the lawsuit.

"If this is true, we feel hurt that the University of Maryland nursing
school didn't have the courtesy to tell us," Hammer said. "To replace the
services of that organization will take more than one group of folks. We
can make this thing happen. But [losing] that grant would [do] irreparable
damage."

Neighborhood opposition

The project has spent more than $1 million in government and private money
to renovate sections of the ship, which has been moored temporarily at
North Locust Point Marine Terminal.

Representatives of the Locust Point neighborhood, including state Sen.
George W. Della Jr. and Del. Brian K. McHale, have objected to berthing the
ship there. They say the pier should be used for economic development, and
that having people living amid cranes and heavy trucks could be dangerous.

Project Life contends that the port commission, by denying it a permanent
berth, has discriminated against the drug-addicted women the project aims
to serve. It is suing under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the
Fair Housing Act, arguing that the law requires the state to provide a
"reasonable accommodation" for the addicts.

In court, the state argued that the port wasn't built for dwellings of any
kind. But it has discussed offering the Sanctuary berths at the Locust
Point terminal and off Childs Street. Neighborhood opposition and concern
about the condition of the berths have impeded progress on that front.