Drug Housing Law Hurts Battered Women
|
|
In the ruling on Rucker v. HUD, Supreme Court justices reversed an appeals court ruling on the law and reinstated the evictions of four elderly Oakland, Calif., residents — three of them women — whose children, grandchildren or caretakers were arrested for minor drug violations. Although Tuesday’s ruling addressed only the drug-related provisions of the law, it would likely be cited as a precedent if its other criminal provisions were tested in court. But the law shouldn’t apply to domestic violence cases, Lapidus said. “There’s absolutely nothing in the legislative history that indicates that this was meant to apply to victims of domestic violence, whereas there are certainly indications that it should apply in the drug context,” Lapidus said. The law, however, holds particular risks for women. Over 5 million people live in public housing nationally; most are minorities, and most of these households are headed by women, according to statistics released in 2000 by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s department of urban and regional planning. Research shows that women living in poverty are at greater risk of violence than other women. A National Family Violence Survey found that rates of violence against women with annual incomes below $10,000 are more than 3.5 times those found in households with incomes above $40,000. More : alternet.org |