Junior English Project

Junior English Research Paper
Requirements: • A minimum of three pages typed using MLA format for in text citations.
• Works Cited Page following MLA standards
• A clear intro, discrete body paragraphs which center on one topic each, and conclusion
• Uses transition words to create an orderly flow
• A counterargument
• Grammatically sound
• Take a position on the issue and use evidence to support that opinion


The leadership at the Chicago Housing Authority has suggested mandatory drug testing for all residents over 18. A positive test result would result in mandatory drug counseling and evictions. Read the sources and then synthesize at least 3 sources to evaluate the consequences of drug testing CHA residents.
Or
Not Interested? Think about an issue that does interest you and develop a research question of your own and synthesize at least 3 sources to answer the question. Your research question must be approved by your teacher and you must follow the validity guidelines for gathering sources. Extra Credit will be given for students who use the CPS database to gather their sources.

CHA drug tests?
June 03, 2011—accessed from the Chicago Tribune website November 28, 2011
This is an editorial, authored by the editorial board of the paper

The Chicago Housing Authority is in the midst of a transformation that has rescued its residents from high-rise hells and allowed them to live with more safety and dignity in mixed-income, low-rise apartments. The demolition of Cabrini-Green, once the symbol of everything wrong with public housing, has just been completed.
The CHA has a new and controversial proposal that is intended to promote the safety and dignity of its residents: mandatory drug tests for all adults who apply for a CHA lease or renew a lease. If a tenant tests positive for drugs, he or she will be steered into city-funded drug treatment. If a tenant refuses treatment, he or she can be evicted.
This gives us pause, because broad drug testing that's not triggered by evidence of abuse does infringe on privacy. Chicago would be the first city to require drug testing for all public housing residents. The CHA currently tests residents in nearly half of the 45 mixed-income developments that blend public housing residents with people who pay market rates to buy or rent.
The proposal has gotten mixed reviews from public housing residents. Minnie Jefferson, who lives in a CHA senior building, is all for getting drugs out of her neighborhood. She had to kick out two younger relatives over their drug use, she said.
But she doesn't like this idea. "If someone can give me a logical reason why drug testing will reduce crime, I can live with that answer. I still haven't heard one," she told us.
Others, though, welcome the proposal as a way to weed out drug-abusing neighbors who bring down the quality of life in a community.
We think the CHA should try this for a year. Let's see if it meets three tests: Is it cost-effective, does it make public housing safer and does it improve the quality of life in communities where CHA has a presence.
If it does not meet those three standards, the CHA should scrap it after a year.
The agency's proposal still is not fully formed. Officials could not say how much the testing and treatment would cost. The CHA needs to fill in those blanks while it takes public comments, through June 16.
The agency will learn from experience if drug users are deterred by the threat of eviction or if they can easily evade detection from a scheduled test. In CHA's current, limited testing, only 1 of 51 residents who tested positive was evicted. Others submitted to treatment.
Public housing is at a crossroads. The ongoing transformation is giving people a better chance to live in developments that are not overwhelmed by gang rivalries and drug dealers, as the high-rises often were.
CHA officials do not want to fritter away this opportunity to build vibrant communities, so they have come up with this unconventional idea. CEO Lewis Jordan says the agency is undertaking this initiative not as a punitive hammer but to promote healthy citizens and healthy communities. The treatment component is key; it gives residents a chance to get off drugs. That is good for them and for their neighbors.
"For the sake of peace and tranquility, they want us to do something," Jordan told us.
Let's give it a try.

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Editorial: Silent majority back drug testing by CHA
Accessed from the Chicago Sun Times on November 28th, 2011
Editorials
Last Modified: Jul 7, 2011 01:58PM

The Chicago Housing Authority has floated the idea of making drug testing a condition of occupancy for all adults living in public housing.
Drug testing to get in. Drug testing to stay in.
On this thorny issue, which raises the hackles of civil libertarians and public housing advocates, we are siding with what we believe is the silent majority of CHA residents.
We think they want drug testing.
Not to punish poor people for living in public housing. And not to stigmatize anyone, though we appreciate that is a real risk.
We’re tentatively backing drug testing because it can potentially make newly revamped CHA developments safer and set a tone that illegal activity is simply not tolerated.
Because God knows that wasn’t the case with the old public housing projects. Over the last decade, the CHA has torn down its projects, displaced thousands of residents and begun to rebuild. The last thing it wants is to recreate the high-rise ghettos it once had.
Mandatory drug testing could be one small part of a larger effort to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Top officials at the CHA tell us the drug-testing idea grew out of conversations with residents yearning for a safer environment. Most public housing families, it goes without saying, can’t afford to live elsewhere. They can’t move if their next-door neighbor is abusing drugs. Instead, they want the CHA to do everything it can to prevent that from happening.
CHA chief Lewis Jordan insists this isn’t about finding new ways to throw tenants out. Already, the CHA does drug tests at a handful of mixed-income communities and, over the last decade, there has been just one eviction — a market-rate tenant, not a CHA renter. Some CHA adults tested positive, but the CHA offered them drug treatment and no one was evicted, the CHA says.
That is encouraging, though it doesn’t necessarily reflect what might happen if the CHA started testing tens of thousands of adults at all its developments.
Before the CHA moves forward with this proposal — which apparently would make it the first large public housing authority in the country to require drug testing — many issues still must be resolved:
† Safety: Is there any research to prove that drug testing will make developments safer or are other strategies more effective?
† Costs: How much would drug testing cost? Would those costs be worth the benefits?
† Treatment before eviction: Any new policy must spell out that residents who test positive would be offered treatment as a first step before any talk of eviction.
† The leftovers: The drug-testing rule would inevitably prompt some residents to leave public housing, with many using subsidized vouchers to rent elsewhere. How will CHA make sure parts of the South Side and West Side that already house a disproportionate share of former CHA residents are not further overrun?
In addition to drug testing, the CHA also wants to eliminate the “innocent tenant defense” in eviction cases. This allows residents facing eviction because a family member or guest is arrested for a drug or violent offense to avoid eviction by arguing in court that they were unaware of the illegal activity. The CHA says residents can still try to persuade the CHA before going to court, thus potentially avoiding conviction. But the CHA says eliminating the defense in court could speed up an eviction where it’s warranted. We’re not convinced. The CHA should continue to give poor residents facing eviction every legal remedy available.
The CHA is wisely taking it slow with both proposals. There is a 30-day public comment period, with a possible vote in July.
Chicago Housing Authority passes annual budget
By Natalie Moore | Dec. 21, 2010—Accessed from WBEZ website November 28th, 2011-
The Chicago Housing Authority board of commissioners passed a $917 million budget on Tuesday as the agency continues to revamp its properties.
In its 12th year, the Plan for Transformation has created mixed-income developments and rehabbed existing family apartments. CHA officials say 85 percent of the Plan will be completed under this 2011 budget.

“The overall budget is generally stable,” said CHA Chief Financial Officer Elias Rosario. The budget is slightly lower than last year because federal stimulus dollars will be used up. Most of CHA’s overall budget comes from federal funds.

The agency has set out to deliver 25,000 units by 2015. It will expand its portfolio by buying acquiring 60 foreclosed properties with three or more bedrooms.

“We’re going out and finding foreclosed properties throughout the city and we’re trying to bring those back to handle some of the needs of larger families,” Rosario said.

In addition, CHA will make 646 rentals via vouchers available through assistance programs.

And this source:

http://www.aclu-il.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ACLU-IL-comment-re-proposed-FY11-ACOP-6-3-11.pdf