Pubdate: Sat, 05 Aug 2000
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2000 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4066
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
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Author: Noah Isackson

APARTMENTS USE DRUG TESTS TO HELP SLAM DOOR ON CRIME

On the sidewalks surrounding two Edgewater apartment buildings, the
Bryn Mawr and the Belle Shore, neighbors once sipped alcohol cloaked
in paper bags while prostitutes met their customers.

Each night, street toughs held court as drug dealers worked the
streets. Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) used to call the two buildings a
blight in her ward.

But two years ago, a new building manager brought a controversial
approach to the apartments--requiring that prospective tenants pass a
drug test. Smith said the change has reduced the amount of crime and
has been a factor in cleaning up the blocks.

"It has helped the community to understand that there is a way to make
changes, a way to get it done," she said. "We are now bringing back a
neighborhood."

Drug testing, accepted for years in the workplace, has quietly made
small inroads in the private housing industry during the past several
years. Early indications suggest that most residents and landlords,
along with police, believe the practice is helping curb problems in
local communities.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other
landlords across the country say they are watching Edgewater's
example. The idea of testing potential tenants for drugs also has been
considered in several public housing programs nationwide.

In private housing, the tests are administered for adults in at least
three buildings in Chicago. Nationwide data on usage is not available,
although at least one landlord in Ohio and another in Florida test
potential tenants.

Although some civil liberties advocates question the practice, arguing
it is too intrusive, they acknowledge that such drug tests probably
would pass legal muster in court because they are voluntary and the
apartments are privately owned.

"The question is not can they do it, but should they do it," said Ed
Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of
Illinois. "It's a really strange territory we tread when the
perception is that, in order to do business with someone, we have to
open up our entire lives."

John Bartlett of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization also decried
such testing, saying it shows the powerlessness of poor people looking
for apartments in a tight market for affordable housing.

"Landlords are in the driver's seat; poor people don't have a choice,"
he said.

But the management company that runs all three buildings in Chicago,
along with their counterparts in Ohio and Florida, said no applicant
has threatened a lawsuit or charged discrimination.

Residents said they value the knowledge that neighbors are not drug
users more than they mind submitting to a drug test.

Cynthia Zeman, 39, a food-service manager at Evanston Hospital who has
lived in a studio apartment in the Belle Shore since December, is
among the tenants behind the plan.

"I was shocked when they told me about the drug tests," she said. "But
it is very exciting to live in a place where you can see that they are
turning things around."

"I used to be afraid to get off [the "L" train] on Bryn Mawr; there
were drug dealers and prostitutes," said Belle Shore resident Holli
Hitchins, 29, a dancer who recently renewed her lease. "But I feel
safe now."

There has been a "noticeable" drop in crime around the two buildings,
at 1062 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. and at 5550 N. Kenmore Ave., according to
Chicago Police Community Policing Officer Bob Johnson of the Foster
Avenue District. Although police do not attribute the drop to the drug
tests alone, they said the new policy is a factor.

"Walk over there now, you see urban renewal going on," said police
officer Victor Grimm.

Community leaders agree the drop in crime has helped fuel larger
efforts to attract new businesses and upscale residents to Edgewater.

"The problems related to drug use forced us to enter our own war
against drugs," said Matthew Roddy, executive vice president of
Holsten Management Corp., which owns the two buildings. "The credit
checks, the employment checks, the rental history checks, weren't
giving us the information we needed. We needed to specifically mount
an attack against drugs on our properties."

The company also uses drug tests at an apartment building in Garfield
Park.

"Our residents are behind us," company president Peter Holsten said.
"They want to live in places that are free from drugs because they see
how it makes problems disappear.

"The only people who aren't positive about it are the ones who know
they would fail the test."

Since the policy began in 1998, about 600 people have taken the urine
test, with about 1 percent failing, said Sherri Kranz, director of
leasing and community relations for the two buildings. The cost is
included in the application fee.

HUD is among those watching the renaissance of the
buildings.

"It's a process that is of interest to us," said Lee Jones, a
spokesman for HUD. "Certainly we will watch what the experience of
these two buildings is and see what the result is."

A Columbus, Ohio, developer in 1994 may have been the first to require
drug tests of renters, and a handful of landlords in other cities soon
followed, neatly fitting the policy into a lease that included other
typically forbidden things, such as wild animals, waterbeds or subletters.

Legal experts--arguing that no law prohibits a private company from
administering voluntary drug tests--said the policy would probably hold
up in court.

"There have always been provisions in leases that prevent illegal
activity," said Robert Boron, a Chicago attorney who has specialized
in landlord-tenant issues for two decades. "This represents a more
pre-emptive strike, and it may not be such a bad idea."

Housing advocates say drug testing is a natural outgrowth of crime and
politics. Laws now make property owners liable for criminal activity
on their land. In the last decade, this combination has dramatically
changed the way building owners view tenants, said Sheila Crowley,
president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington,
D.C.

"There is a considerable political element here that has trickled
down," Crowley said. "The nature of politics today is that it's a huge
faux pas to be soft on drugs and crime."

For Holsten, the threat of prosecution factored heavily into his
company's decision to require drug testing of tenants. Several years
ago, Holsten said he received "nasty letters" from the Cook County
state's attorney's office about problems at several of his properties.

"We were on the verge of being declared a public nuisance," Holsten
said. "Here we are, a developer of low-income housing, trying to do
good things for the community, and we are being taken to task for our
tenants' criminal activity."
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