Community Corp. has a zero tolerance drug policy
A recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing public housing providers to combat drug users with aggressive eviction policies likely won’t have much of an effect in Santa Monica, officials said.
Joan Ling, executive director of Santa Monica Community Corporation Housing, said her organization already takes aggressive legal action against anyone causing problems — criminal or otherwise — in their buildings, so the new law won’t change anything.
“It may be a tool for other public housing organizations,” Ling said. “But I really don’t think it will do much for us.”
The ruling upheld policies that allow providers of public housing to evict whole families for drug use by one member.
Four elderly California tenants who challenged evictions from federal zero-tolerance policies because they said they were unaware of any illegal activities going on in their households lost in the nation’s highest court last week.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote that the government, as a landlord, can control activities of its tenants while trying to provide safe, drug-free housing.
Problems stemming from drug use and abuse by tenants living in affordable housing complexes in Santa Monica are reported to be low.
In Santa Monica, Community Corp., has to evict a tenant every few years because of drug-related activities, Ling said. However, in those rare occasions, the families were asked to leave only after several steps to intervene by social workers and the police department failed.
Often times she said the issue never goes that far because drug-dealers don’t like attention. Officials can “apply a little heat” and the person will simply leave the complex, she said.
Another official at Community Corp., the largest provider of affordable housing in Santa Monica, said the organization has cut down on drug problems in its buildings by keeping apartment complexes small and reporting any problem to social workers and the Santa Monica Police Department.
3E2,“Yes, this is another tool but because of our aggressive maintenance we will hopefully never have to use it,” said Paul DeSantis, a 15-year member of the Community Corporation’s Board of Directors.
Ling said Community Corp., has worked to build a relationship with police and that on occasion, the police have set up undercover investigations of illegal activity.
Said Desantis, “We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to illegal drugs. We just don’t tolerate it, and if we get word that someone is using drugs or selling drugs we are right on it.”
“We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to illegal drugs. We just don’t tolerate it, and if we get word that someone is using drugs or selling drugs we are right on it.” — — PAUL DESANTIS Community Corp. board member
One community leader familiar with families who have been evicted for being involved in illegal drugs or belonging to gangs said eviction from public housing should be the last step.
“Work with them first before evicting them, try to get them off of drugs and get them the social services they need,” said Oscar de la Torre, director of The Pico Youth and Family Center. “Drug abuse is typically a much smaller part of a larger problem.”
Evicting families because one member has a problem with illegal drugs may only lead to further complications for the other family members, de la Torre said.
DeSantis said the Supreme Court’s ruling would affect larger cities with much larger public housing complexes.
“It will help on the other large public housing complexes that have a history of drug culture and crime,” he said. “In the large public projects all you need to have is six or seven families doing drugs out of a 100-120 unit building and you’ll have a problem.”
And DeSantis said many of those larger cities don’t have the pressures of having three thousand member waiting lists for only 150 or fewer available units every year.
“We let out tenants know the rules before they ever move into one of our affordable housing units,” said DeSantis. “And they know there are 3,000 applicants willing to take their place if they don’t follow the rules.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this story)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 2, 2002. Read the original PDF.