Government Loses Appeal; Public Housing Eviction Plan Held Illegal

The federal government’s plan to evict people suspected of using drugs from public housing in 23 cities violates the Constitution, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a December, 1990, ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams that barred any such eviction without notice and a hearing, except in extraordinary circumstances.

The plan represented an effort by the departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development to encourage federal prosecutors to remove drug offenders from public housing promptly.

The 23 target cities were not identified.

“The reason courts are so protective of due-process rights is to protect innocent people from mistakes,” said Florence Roisman, a lawyer for the National Housing Law Project in Washington. “That’s what this preserves--the constitutional insistence on fair procedures.”

The National Public Housing Asset Forfeiture Project would have allowed authorities to evict tenants even if no one was arrested, she said.

“It’s hysteria in the name of the ‘war on drugs,’ ” she said. “The government has lots of other tools to go after people.”

The National Tenants Organization, the Richmond Tenants Organization and the Resident Advisory Board of the Housing Authority of Baltimore also regarded the procedures as illegal.

Residents in Richmond and Baltimore had asked Williams for an injunction before any evictions could take place.