Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990 TAG: 9006260468
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The effort to shut down what one official called "grocery stores selling crack cocaine" is part of a campaign by Housing Secretary Jack Kemp to rid public housing of drug trafficking.
"We want to purge them of the criminal element and put in decent, law-abiding citizens," Frank Keating, general counsel of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Monday.
"The problem is a shocking one that makes life miserable for the men, women and children who live in public housing," he said.
HUD officials originally had planned to send U.S. marshals to seize the leases under a 1988 federal asset forfeiture law and immediately evict the suspected drug dealers from public housing.
But a federal judge in Richmond, Va., late last week issued an order barring evictions, except in "exigent circumstances," without giving the tenants prior notice and an opportunity for a hearing.
Officials said they believe the order by U.S. District Judge Richard Williams empowers marshals to immediately evict suspected drug dealers who have firearms or if there is fear the suspect might retaliate against neighbors for calling the police.
"If there is firearms, if there is a large amount of drugs like a kilo of coke, they can be evicted," said HUD spokesman Bob Nipp.
The 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act specifically authorizes the seizure of public-housing leases from suspected dealers if the apartment is used as a place to sell illegal drugs.
The same law empowers law enforcement officials to seize guns, cars, cash, boats and other property of suspected drug dealers.
But civil libertarians argued that public-housing evictions without prior notice was unconstitutional.
Legal aid attorneys in Richmond obtained a preliminary injunction requiring such notification. Cary Copeland, head of the Justice Department's asset forfeiture program, said government lawyers were studying the ruling to decide whether to file an appeal.
Florence Roisman, a staff attorney for the National Housing Law Project, charged that HUD was trying to short-circuit due-process protections in the Constitution.
HUD planned this week to seize between one and five apartments in each of the 19 targeted cities, Keating said.
Originally, there were to be seizures in 22 cities. Officials declined to describe changes made in the original list, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Besides Richmond, the targets include housing projects in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Dallas, Hartford, Conn.; Newark, N.J.; Indianapolis; Flint, Mich.; Charleston, S.C.; Macon, Ga.; Kansas City, Mo.; El Paso, Texas; Omaha, Neb.; Portland, Ore.; and St. Louis.
The original list had also included Chandler, Ariz.; Tacoma, Wash.; and Frederick, Md.
by CNB