Senior Faces Abrupt Eviction

WOMAN FORCED OUT OF HOME AFTER HER WORKER FOUND WITH DRUGS

A 69-year-old Marina woman may lose her government-subsidized studio
apartment because of a federal policy punishing her for the actions of an
uninvited guest.

Police found Olive McKibben's home health-care helper hanging out in her
Marina Manor apartment, allegedly with methamphetamine, while McKibben was
on vacation, prompting a housing agency to begin eviction proceedings.
McKibben was told by the agency that she must leave her apartment by June
16 because of federal anti-drug rules.

McKibben said she is a victim of a zero-tolerance housing policy that
shrugs off extenuating circumstances. And she said she is fighting the
eviction.

"I'm going the full distance," said McKibben, referring to her resolve to
fight the eviction notice she received in April from the Community Housing
Improvement Systems & Planning Association, the housing agency known as
CHISPA that operates the Marina Manor complex where she lives. "I don't
have much choice."

Bob Uemura, a Salinas attorney representing CHISPA, said the housing agency
officials generally doesn't like to evict tenants, but the federal policy
is forcing their hands.

"They usually bend over backwards to work with the tenants and try to
reinstate them," he said. "In a case like this, though, we have to take
action."

Marina Manor is a seniors-only housing project on Carmel Avenue.

McKibben said she has lived in Marina Manor for about a year. She moved to
Monterey County from Tuscon, Ariz., to be closer to her family. Her
problems started in April, when she left the county for two weeks to visit
her daughter in Sylmar.

During the visit, she received a telephone call from an officer with the
Marina Department of Public Safety informing her that her neighbors
reported someone was in her apartment.

McKibben said she was shocked by the news and asked the officer to arrest
the man.

The would-be intruder turned out to be the home health-care worker McKibben
had hired two months earlier. She had not given him permission to stay in
her studio, she said, but he did agree to come by and feed her pet and
water her plants.

Police found her apartment in shambles. They also found drugs that
allegedly belonged to the worker.

The day after McKibben returned home from the visit, she received an
eviction notice from CHISPA, which cited federal Department of Housing and
Urban Development "zero-tolerance" regulations.

The Marina Manor is a CHISPA project for low-income residents who are
receive rent discounts with assistance from HUD subsidies. The regulation
is meant to keep low-cost housing projects from becoming a haven for drug use.

The policy has been applied in projects throughout the country, including
several high-profile cases on the East Coast where elderly tenants were
evicted because of their grandchildren's drug use.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that operators of public housing
projects can legally evict families because of a family member's drug use.

But McKibben said her home health-care worker was not a family member, not
an invited guest and certainly not under her control.

McKibben said she asked that her case be mediated, an option in many
tenant-landlord disputes, but CHISPA officials refused to participate. She
also sought advice from nonprofit legal aid groups, where attorneys told
her she should drop the matter and find another apartment.

McKibben pays $205 monthly for the studio. She suffered severe back
injuries resulting from an automobile accident nine years ago and she said
her only income is the $800 she receives from Social Security.

Uemura said CHISPA will file an unlawful detainer against McKibben if she
doesn't vacate the apartment by June 16.