The San Diego Police Department served a search warrant on an apartment residence at the Sunburst Housing Project in East Village and arrested Samuel Tabor, 25, last Wednesday. Police took Tabor, a resident of the facility for a little more than a year, into custody for possession of a “large quantity” of ecstasy tablets, according to Sunburst Housing Project administration.

“This is the first incident of this degree at the housing project,” said Delores Jacobs, chief executive officer at The Center, which operates the Youth Housing Project that opened in February 2006. The 23-unit, tangerine-colored edifice in downtown San Diego provides affordable housing for GLBT and HIV-positive youth ages 18 to 24.

Many of the residents have been estranged from their homes and/or have transitioned out of foster care. But if they exceed the 24-year age limit, as is the case with Tabor, they are not kicked out, Jacobs said. “They can stay until they have developed the resources to move on to another stable living environment. For some of them that can be two to three months, for others it is longer.”

Still, any resident found to possess drugs is served with an eviction notice, Jacobs said. “Drugs are illegal, and we have a zero tolerance policy for such issues,” she said, noting that to her knowledge this is the policy at any residential facility.

Jacobs said, however, that residents do not undergo narcotics testing prior to entering the facility, and no routine testing is performed while they are living at the facilities.

“Unfortunately merely providing drug testing does not stop drug use,” she said. “We are not naive and are fully aware that if we are going to provide services and housing to homeless youth, then we are going to face such problems. Youth come with backgrounds that include all kinds of challenges. That is why there are services available for them on site.”

The Youth Housing Program offers a number of services to residents including drug and alcohol treatment, professional mental health and counseling services, job training, basic financial planning and fundamental life skills training.

“Most drugs are out of a person’s system within a couple of days, so [drug testing] will not really tell what is going on with the particular person being tested,” said Patrick Loose, director of programs and operations at The Center, explaining why drug testing to prevent such issues is not performed at the Youth Housing Project. “We would rather develop a trusting relationship with the residents at the facility, so that we can know if something like this is going on, and we can help get them the programs and services they need.”

Nicole Garroutte, associate director of communications at Larkin Street Youth Services, which runs a similar youth housing facility in San Francisco, echoed both Jacobs and Loose’s reason for not testing residents.

“We would rather youth come through our doors high and be comfortable receiving services, than testing them and making them uncomfortable while getting services,” she said, explaining she could not comment on any such incidents at the San Francisco facilities. “We know that a lot of our clients use, and we work from a harm reduction model, which has the goal to reduce any type of risky behavior, although drug testing is not part of that model.”

Like Sunburst, Garroutte said Larkin has expectations that the residents are not going to be using illegal drugs on site. “Bringing and using drugs on site makes the environment unsafe for others and such expectations are clear. While we do not employ testing or frisking at the door, there has been a tone set, which helps build a trusting relationship with the youth and they are actually pretty respectful of such expectations.”

Sunburst Apartment, which is the first youth housing project of its kind in San Diego, has a resident property manager, along with case managers and social workers who provide guidance to residents.

But Jacobs said that while a variety of services are offered to assist residents with substance abuse issues, it is not guaranteed those who avail themselves of the programs will stop using such substances.

“I don’t know anybody who can guarantee that anywhere,” she said.

She said that while illegal activity is grounds for termination of the residents’ leases, the risk of being turned out on the street does not help prevent drug abuse.

“Unfortunately even the consequence doesn’t help them to make the correct choice. It’s heartbreaking and frustrating.”

In May, a 24-year-old Sunburst Housing Project resident was hospitalized with serious chest wounds after a confrontation inside his apartment escalated, resulting in a stabbing.

The suspect was later apprehended and is being prosecuted, according to Jacobs, who said the victim is recovering and has since moved.