DON'T KICK OUT GRANNY WITH DEALERS

It's justifiable to evict drug dealers from public housing, but the legal
authority to do so ought to be used judiciously to avoid throwing innocent
family members into homelessness.

The U.S. Supreme Court just upheld a federal law that gives public housing
agencies the power to evict all the occupants of an apartment if one person
living there is using or dealing drugs.

Benjamin Quattlebaum, the director of the Wilmington Housing Authority,
appears to have the right approach. He said the agency looks at cases
individually before deciding to evict an entire family. That makes more
sense than a zero-tolerance policy in these matters.

Ridding public housing of drug dealers is the goal of this law, and it
gives housing authorities some leverage to do this. It also encourages
other tenants to own up to the responsibility of keeping people off drugs.

But it does no good to throw an elderly grandmother out of her home if one
of the grandchildren she's raising is using drugs without her knowledge.