Pubdate: Wed, 17 Apr 2002
Source: Buffalo News (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The Buffalo News
Contact:  http://www.buffalonews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61
Author: Frank C. Boncore
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n684/a07.html

POOR HAVE A RIGHT TO DRUG-FREE HOUSING

For the past 34 years, I have been an employee of the Buffalo Municipal 
Housing Authority, and have worked for eight executive directors. Over 
those years, I have read several articles in which The News criticized the 
authority for its maintenance and management policies.

We have been called the city's largest landlord on radio talk shows, and 
the "housing of last resort." Housing Authority politics also has been 
blasted in the media. Some of the criticism has been deserved and some, I 
believe, was fabricated to sell newspapers and improve ratings on radio and 
television stations.

But the recent News article, "Public housing tenants evicted on "one 
strike' rule cry foul," incensed me so much that I had to reply to that 
nonsense.

A single mother, a 10-year Jasper Parrish resident, was evicted because her 
16-year-old son was arrested in another apartment for possessing 10 bags of 
crack cocaine and a bag of marijuana. What was he doing with such a stash? 
Saving it for a rainy day? I don't think so.

God bless Executive Director Sharon West and the Housing Authority for 
adopting and enforcing a zero-tolerance policy. Civil libertarians have 
called this policy racist. Nonsense! Race has nothing to do with it. Poor 
people, minorities or not, have a right to live in drug-free housing.

West, through her policies, has worked very hard to turn projects into 
developments with decent, affordable housing. The evicted tenant said she 
was forced to move to the drug-infested West Side. Perhaps if the city 
followed West and the authority's zero-tolerance policies, the West Side 
would be drug-free.

Frank C. Boncore,
West Seneca
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