Georgia
Georgia Legal Services tried to prevent the Macon Housing Authority from evicting Tina Burke for using her apartment to deal drugs. There was no doubt about Burke’s illegal activity. Her apartment was surrounded by gangs of young men, lookouts and cars constantly pulling up to make transactions. Law enforcement officials even conducted a careful surveillance of the residence which clearly showed Burke participating in drug deals. Despite this overwhelming evidence, legal services lawyers vigorously opposed her eviction on the grounds that she was ignorant of the activity going on in her house.
In another Macon case, tenant Shon Scott was arrested after leaving a crack house two blocks from his residence. He was charged with possession of 33 pieces of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. Scott pled guilty. Incredibly, Georgia Legal Services argued that Scott’s activity did not violate the terms of the lease because the illegal activity did not take place on public housing property.
These are but a few examples of the dozens of eviction cases Georgia
Legal Services handled involving the Macon Housing Authority. Legal services
lost all but one. However, because of legal services delaying tactics the
Authority’s annual legal bill has soared from $10,000 to $90,000.
For Further Information, see the Congressional Testimony of John Hiscox,
Executive Director of the Macon Housing Authority. House Committee
on the Judiciary; Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, June
15, 1995.
Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Housing Authority attempted to evict a woman who was dealing drugs and extorting money from other tenants. Legal services filed a civil rights suit on her behalf even though legal services was informed that the F.B.I. was investigating her criminal activity. Legal services won the suit on the grounds that the PHA did not give her adequate notice of the charges. Legal services lawyers obtained $5,500 in legal fees.
From 1994 to the present, the PHA has paid a total of $194,281
in fees to legal services. On average, legal services attorneys are paid
at a rate of $150 per hour. Federal District Court Judges presiding in
these cases have repeatedly expressed concern that legal services is charging
exorbitant rates for routine cases. In fact, most of the cases belong in
state court but legal services brings the cases to federal court in order
to collect the fees.
See the Congressional Testimony of Michael Pileggi, Counsel
for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, June 15, 1995.
Pittsburgh
The Northside Tenants Reorganization (NTR), a tenant-managed housing
complex in Pittsburgh, is locked in a bitter feud with Neighborhood Legal
Services (NLS). Angry tenants say that soon after they took over on-site
management of their complex in 1983, NLS attorneys began fighting all their
attempts to evict vandals, drug dealers and other violent tenants. To avert
a clash, NTR and the NLS reached an agreement whereby legal services would
stop defending such tenants. However, says Harriet Henson, Executive Director
of NTR, NLS immediately broke the agreement. Thanks to NLS’s interminable
appeals, it can take as long as two years to evict a problem tenant.
See Congressional Testimony of Harriet Henson, June 15 1995
and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 19 1994.,
New York City
Fed up with soaring crime and rampant drugs in their neighborhoods,
New York City’s public housing tenant associations gave strong support
to the Housing Authority’s new eviction plan. Currently, it can take as
long as three years to evict problem tenants like drug dealers. Under the
streamlined plan, the eviction process could be reduced to 3 or 4 months.
The Legal Aid Society of New York denounced the move saying the eviction
plan would violate the rights of tenants. How about the rights of law-abiding
tenants? They complain they can’t sit out at night, let their children
play after dark or visit someone in their own building. All legal services
could say was that people are no more victimized by crime today than they
were 25 years ago.
See The New York Times, August 15, 1994.