Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jul 2013
Source: Durango Herald, The (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Durango Herald
Contact: http://durangoherald.com/write_the_editor/
Website: http://durangoherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/866
Author: Emery Cowan

UP IN (POT) SMOKE

Conflict Between State, Federal Laws Leads to Man's Eviction

Tim Walker takes three oxycodone pills a day to ease the pain that 
shoots through the joints in his right arm and swollen right leg. He 
has been dealing with the pain for 16 years after three strokes left 
the 55-year-old partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound. He would be 
taking an even more powerful dose of medication were it not for the 
medical marijuana he smokes each morning and each night before he goes to bed.

Walker's efforts to find a new place to live have so far been 
ineffective. He must leave Tamarin Square Senior Apartments by Tuesday.

But the pot that makes his pain bearable and helps him sleep is now 
causing him to lose the federally subsidized apartment he has rented 
for five years.

The Durango apartment complex, Tamarin Square Senior Apartments, 
receives federal money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban 
Development to subsidize the rent of eligible low-income residents. 
That means the housing complex is obligated to follow federal laws 
about marijuana.

After the property manager learned Walker was smoking marijuana on 
the premises this spring, he was served an eviction notice at the end 
of May. After Walker refused to leave, the property manager took the 
case to county court where Walker agreed to a settlement that 
requires him to be out of the apartment on Tuesday.

With few affordable-housing options available in Durango, Walker's 
situation seems to have come down to a choice between pain relief and 
a decent roof over his head.

More than a decade after Colorado voters legalized medical marijuana, 
similar clashes between state and federal marijuana laws continue to 
come up in public housing across Colorado, lawyers, housing 
authorities and medical marijuana advocates said.

"It's a contradiction between two great powers, the state and the 
federal government, and unfortunately, it's the little people that 
get caught in the middle," said Kim Shropshire, an attorney with 
Colorado Legal Services who represented Walker in the eviction case.

Getting booted

All 68 units in Tamarin Square are subsidized through a Section 8 
contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 
Eligible low-income residents pay a maximum of 30 percent of their 
gross adjusted income each month. For Walker, that amounts to $277 
per month for his one-bedroom apartment.

Walker moved into Tamarin Square in 2008. At that time, he was taking 
Dilaudid, a stronger narcotic pain reliever, but he realized he was 
getting addicted to the drug. So three years ago he got a medical 
marijuana card and started smoking twice a day, which allowed him to 
wean himself off the stronger drug. He now numbs the pain with a 
combination of oxycodone and marijuana.

Then, in February, court records show, the building manager gave 
Walker a first warning about his medical marijuana use. In April, 
police showed up at his door and reported that Walker was smoking 
marijuana in the apartment.

"If I'm doing something illegal, then arrest me," Walker said he 
responded. Police didn't take any action, but a month later, Walker 
was served an eviction notice. According to the settlement reached in 
county court, if Walker leaves by Tuesday the property manager will 
give him a neutral reference.

HUD's Colorado office is aware of between four and six cases similar 
to Walker's, regional HUD spokeswoman Charlene Guzman wrote in an 
email. Medical marijuana lawyers say they deal with the issue fairly regularly.

"It's more common than we wish," said Tae Darnell, a Denver attorney 
who has worked on medical marijuana issues for more than a decade. 
Brian Vicente, an attorney and the executive director for the 
nonprofit Sensible Colorado, a medical marijuana advocacy 
organization, said the organization receives about a dozen calls a 
year about the issue.

The situation is improving, Vicente said. While the number of issues 
has remained relatively constant, housing authorities are using more 
discretion in deciding whether it is necessary to reject or evict a 
medical marijuana patient, he said.

If housing authorities do decide to enforce federal marijuana laws, 
however, patients don't have much legal recourse, Darnell said.

"It's a tragedy of the system right now," he said.

Housing and employment are the two areas where state and federal 
marijuana laws most often come to a head, he said.

In 2011, the assistant secretary for Public and Indian Housing sought 
to clarify the issue for at least one segment of HUD's public housing 
programs. The memorandum gave public housing authorities the 
discretion to create their own policies about how to handle medical 
marijuana users in the 18 states where the drug is legal. But that 
direction applies to public housing and voucher programs only under 
HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing. The Multifamily Housing 
program, which oversees Tamarin, has received no such notice or 
policy direction, Guzman wrote.

The housing search

As of Friday, Walker was trying to find a two-bedroom house to rent 
with his caregiver but hadn't found anywhere promising yet. He is 
unable to work because of his disability, and the $1,100 a month he 
receives in Social Security benefits makes most market rate rentals 
unaffordable. The wait for federally subsidized housing is at least 
several months.

Housing Solutions for the Southwest, which manages a portion of the 
HUD affordable-housing vouchers in Durango, has a waiting list that 
is three to four pages long, said Kim Welty, the executive director.

The other issue is that the vast majority of affordable housing in 
Durango is tied to federal dollars, which means medical marijuana is 
not allowed.

When asked about the affordable housing not tied to federal money, 
Welty replied, "I can't think of one."

Walker still struggles to understand why his medical marijuana use is 
causing his eviction.

"I smoke a little grass, but I'm not bothering anyone," he said. "I 
know I'm being screwed over, and there's nothing I can do about it."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom