Drug Violators Face Rent-Subsidy Loss

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, fulfilling his spring pledge to act to remove people associated with drugs from government-supported housing, announced Friday that HUD will extend its drug-related eviction policy to affect recipients of low-income rent subsidies.

Under the new regulation, public housing authorities will be directed to take action against tenants “involved in the felonious manufacture, sale, distribution or use of illegal drugs, or any other felonious criminal activity,” he said.

Unlike Kemp’s earlier efforts to evict drug users and dealers from housing projects, the plan to revoke what are commonly known as Section 8 rent subsidies allows for tenants to receive a hearing on the proposed termination.

The new measure differs also from the public housing eviction process by allowing “uninvolved family members” to remain in the subsidized unit where drug activity is alleged to have taken place.

“I am determined that federal taxpayers will not be required to subsidize the rent of drug dealers and users or violent criminals,” Kemp said Friday. “The only housing subsidies for felons should be provided by local jails and state and federal prisons.”