Recent Court Rulings

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Facts: A resident with diabetes lives in a Section 8 building. The lease expressly prohibits dogs or cats as pets. At some point while living in her unit, the resident got a dog. The owner allowed the resident to keep the dog as an accommodation for unspecified reasons. In July 2009, the resident took in a second dog without notifying the management. The resident also signed a recertification of her lease in December 2009, in which she stated that she d...

Facts: A resident was convicted of second-degree theft. The resident’s crime involved misappropriating “Resident Participation Funds,” which were to be used “to generate programs for the residents within the community to gain either employment or anything to make them become self-sufficient, or to provide anything that would be a benefit to the residents within the community.”

Facts: The sole source of income of a resident of a project-based Section 8 site is public assistance from social services. Her share of the rent amounted to $312 per month as of her last recertification on March 1, 2012.

Facts: The local PHA initiated termination proceedings against a resident with five children, two of whom are minors. Police had recovered from the unit a significant amount of marijuana, a bottle of oxycodone pills, and a loaded and operable firearm. The resident wasn’t present at the time of the search, and there was no evidence that she had specific knowledge of the presence of the weapon or the drugs, which apparently were brought into the uni...

Facts: A disabled resident had been living at a site managed by the local PHA for over 20 years. Her 25-year-old grandson resided with her for years. And the lease agreement stated that the resident agreed: “[n]ot to destroy, deface, damage, or remove any part of the premises or property. Not to allow my family or guests to do this.”

Facts: After a Section 8 resident became delinquent in her payment of rent and after the owner made demands for payment, the resident notified the owner of complaints she had regarding the unit. County Housing intervened in the dispute, and the owner and resident signed a mutual termination agreement acknowledging that the lease would terminate on June 30, 2011. County Housing assistance payments ended on July 1, 2011.

Facts: A resident's lease required the resident, when notified, to prepare her unit for treatment by an exterminator and to provide the PHA with access to the unit for that purpose. In February 2010, the PHA advised the resident and others that the building would be treated for bedbugs.

Facts: An African-American resident who lived for many years in housing provided by the local PHA was responsible for paying rent in the amount of $50 per month. And he had subsisted on a “Zero Income Certification” in which he certified that he was receiving no income from any source.

Facts: The lease agreement between a resident and a PHA included provisions requiring management approval before anyone else would be allowed to live in the unit and specifically mandating that no one besides the resident herself could stay in the unit for more than 14 consecutive days without management’s written consent.

Facts: A Section 8 resident challenged the local PHA’s calculation of her income in court. In 2013, the resident received a substantial lump-sum payment of child support arrears from her children’s father. The PHA treated the lump-sum payment as income in 2013 and calculated a repayment amount it claimed it was owed by the resident. The resident used the lump-sum payment to pay the PHA. She appealed the repayment amount to an administrative ...