Housing Authority's Proposed Lease Would Expand Its Eviction Power Pha Wants To Attack Violence. But Tenants Fear Their Rights, Not Drug Traffic, Will Suffer.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority is rewriting the standard lease for its 80,000 tenants to dramatically expand its power to evict residents, including those whose relatives or guests break the law.

Authority officials say the proposed rules were written to attack runaway drugs and violence in public housing, but many residents fear the new lease will curtail their rights more than limit the drug trade.

Under the proposal, which still must be approved by the PHA board, tenants could be evicted for their own criminal activity - or for that of their household members or guests - on or near authority property.

The lease would also prohibit residents from openly carrying or using a range of weapons from guns to slingshots on public housing property. The lease stops short of a total prohibition of guns in public housing, a rule that has been enacted in other cities and has drawn legal challenges.

Some tenants said the ban on using weapons would take away their power to defend themselves, something they say they hold dear in the often violent world of public housing.

"It's a lot of controls over us, like we're not human beings," said Joyce Richardson, vice president of the tenants' council at Champlost Homes in North Philadelphia.

John Paone, the housing authority executive director, makes no excuses for the proposed lease.

"It's a landlord lease," he said in an interview. "It's a strong landlord lease. It's an attempt by me to govern."

Paone said he was outraged by the level of drug and gun activity in the housing developments and was frustrated by the difficulty in evicting tenants, even when they don't pay the rent or are dangerous criminals.

"We probably have more drug activity in public housing than we have anywhere else in Philadelphia," Paone said. "There's a gun incident every day."

Though the proposed lease sparked a protest by tenants at PHA headquarters 10 days ago, Paone said he remained convinced that "the majority of tenants will agree that it's for their own well-being and safety."

The proposals concerning criminal acts and weapons are just one part of a complete rewrite of PHA's standard lease, which was last revised 20 years ago.

Similar to proposals in other cities, it reflects changes in federal laws aimed at attacking drug activity in public housing, said David B. Bryson, a lawyer with the National Housing Law Project in Berkeley, Calif.