The Nation - News from April 21, 1989

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, who has encouraged efforts to evict drug dealers and users from public housing, said that officials will have to consider the role parents played in drug activity by their children before evicting families. Kemp said that in some cases parents may be unable to control older children who are engaged in drug activity. But, Kemp said at a seminar sponsored by Sen. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.) for Colorado constituents, there are cases where heads of families are participants in drug enterprises, sometimes with their children. Kemp has offered to drop HUD requirements that public housing agencies hold hearings for tenants before they can be evicted for drug-related activity if local laws provide them with due process.