Clinton Cracks Down On Public Housing Crime

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 28) -- One strike, you're out! President Bill Clinton signed an executive order today that encourages public housing authorities to evict first-time drug offenders and people who commit violent crimes.

"The only people who deserve to live in public housing are those who live responsibly there and those who honor the rule of law," the president said. "For too many years, the chaos in some of our public housing units has been a national blind spot and a national disgrace."

"One strike" eviction has been federal law since 1988, but most state housing authorities have simply ignored it. Clinton has ordered Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros (131K AIFF or WAV sound) to monitor housing authorities' compliance, and give preference when awarding federal funds to those who enforce the law (187K AIFF or WAV sound).

Critics contend local housing authorities are in such disarray that they should not be given such sweeping power. They assert tenants need more control, not less, of their living environments. Still, HUD found crime dropped 55 percent after Greensboro, N.C. authorities commenced "one-strike" policies. Those policies may also have helped in Macon, Ga., where drug arrests plummeted 91 percent over the last seven years.

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