
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1992                   TAG: 9203040202
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

DRUG-LINKED EVICTION BAN UPHELD

The federal government's plan to evict suspected drug users from public housing projects in 23 cities violates the due-process clause of the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Williams of Richmond. Williams' ruling in December 1990 barred evictions without notice and a hearing except in extraordinary circumstances.

Florence Roisman, a attorney for the National Housing Law Project in Washington, D.C., called the ruling "another victory for the Constitution."

"The reason courts are so protective of due-process rights is to protect innocent people from mistakes," Roisman said. "That's what this preserves - the constitutional insistence on fair procedures."

She said the National Public Housing Asset Forfeiture Project would have allowed authorities to evict tenants even if no arrests were made.

"It's hysteria in the name of the war on drugs," Roisman said. "The government has lots of other tools to go after people."

Alma Barlow, who lived in Richmond's Fairfield Court public housing project for 31 years, said the government was wrong to single out public housing tenants.

"The drug problem all over this city is terrible," said Barlow, who recently moved out of Fairfield Court. "It's a city problem, not a development problem."

Robert V. Zener, the Justice Department lawyer who argued the case on appeal, said he had not seen the opinion. He would not comment on the ruling.

The government did not make public a list of the cities that were to have been affected. The housing authorities in Richmond and Baltimore notified tenants about the plan, prompting residents to ask Williams for an injunction before any evictions could take place.

The project was an effort by the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to encourage federal prosecutors to promptly remove suspected drug offenders from public housing and seize the property.

On appeal, the government argued that drug activity in a public housing project is serious enough to warrant prompt action to protect other residents.

by CNB