Public Housing Safety Policy Can Hit Whole Family
By RACHELLE BLIDNER
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wanda Coleman sits in the New York City public housing apartment where she's lived for 25 years, surrounded by empty rooms, bare walls and suitcases lined up by the front door.
Any day now, she and her teen daughter will be evicted and have no other option than to go to a homeless shelter - partly because of her son's criminal case.
"Why should I be accountable for something that my son did that had nothing to do with my apartment?" asked 48-year-old Coleman, sighing into a surgeon's mask she wears for severe asthma.
Federal public housing guidelines allow for a whole family to be evicted for one family member's alleged criminal activity - even if it occurred elsewhere and no one in the household knew about it. The so-called "One Strike and You're Out" policies aimed at keeping public housing safe have long been criticized by housing advocates as unfair. The federal government three years ago urged changes to related policies because stable housing is seen as one of the best ways to prevent recidivism among ex-offenders.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PUBLIC_HOUSING_EVICTIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-14-22-06-58
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