Recent Court Rulings

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Facts: An Iowa resident sued to overturn a PHA's decision to terminate her Section 8 housing assistance based on her failure to report income. The resident challenged the PHA's policy of treating a failure to report each of her child's Social Security benefits as a separate occurrence of unreported income and claimed that the policy violated the Fair Housing Act on the basis of familial status discrimination.

Facts: A resident's 18-year-old son was arrested and found guilty in municipal court of possession of marijuana on the local housing authority's property. Based on the arrest, the housing authority attempted to evict the resident for her son's drug-related activity.

Facts: A New York resident's lease requires the resident to furnish the owner with complete and accurate information regarding his household income. In 2006, the housing authority's acting inspector general informed the site manager that they had conducted an investigation of the resident and determined from a city's vendor questionnaire that he had owned a "cleaning and janitorial services company...

Facts: A resident with arthritis and an autoimmune disease complained that the lack of heat in her building exacerbated her disability. After code enforcement and Section 8 inspectors inspected the site, the resident claimed that the site management blamed her for the inspection and criticized her for speaking to other residents about problems at the site.

Facts: When a resident applied for Section 8 benefits, she reported that she worked for U.S. Bank and earned total weekly wages of $375. The resident showed the local housing authority a current pay stub. The application also included an affirmation that the contained information is true, correct, and complete, and that any changes in income must be reported in writing within 10 days from the date of occurrence. The resident received rental assistance based upon ...

Facts: A resident, an unemployed single mother of four children, had been receiving Section 8 vouchers for eight years when the events giving rise to the conflict in this case occurred. When she completed her annual recertification process in June 2010, she signed a copy of the public housing authority's (PHA's) “family obligations” policy and watched a film explaining the policies.

Facts: A resident claimed that during her tenancy at a site she was harassed and assaulted by her neighbors for her alleged disability, that the site and its employees failed to take corrective action, and that her Section 8 specialist at the local housing authority conspired with the site owner to terminate her Section 8 benefits and to evict her.

Facts: An owner leased a rental housing facility for elderly residents to a local public housing authority (PHA). The PHA in turn entered into a housing assistance payment (HAP) contract with HUD to provide low-income housing under an amendment enacted in 1974 to the Housing Act of 1937. HAP contracts establish an agreed “maximum monthly rent” the property owners will charge residents, as supplemented by HUD's assistance payments to the owners.

Facts: A resident's daughter sued the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) for terminating the resident's enrollment in the Section 8 voucher program. HPD determined that the resident's subsidy should be terminated due to her absence from her subsidized unit for 180 consecutive days, and due to her daughter's failure to provide documentation that the building management had allowed the daughter to be added to the ...

Facts: An owner financed the construction of an apartment building in 1968 with a mortgage insured under the National Housing Act. In 1992, the owner and the United States, acting through HUD, entered into a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contract. Under the contract, in exchange for rent subsidies and other benefits, the owner agreed to maintain its property in a decent, safe, and sanitary manner. The original HAP contract expired in 1997, but it was periodica...