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HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.3.3 Consequences of Eviction

A tenant who is evicted from subsidized housing suffers all the same disruptions, both financial and personal, that flow from the loss of any home. But for a subsidized tenant, eviction often means the loss of the only housing he or she can afford. For those subsidized tenants who are able to lease new housing after an eviction, seldom will the new housing be decent, safe and sanitary, as many evicted households are forced into the substandard housing market. Others may move in with friends or relatives, or simply become homeless.

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.3.4 Landlord Abuses of Power

Many courts have also set aside eviction decisions found to invade specific constitutional rights or abuse governmental power to the extent of denying due process or equal protection.

Some of the strongest cases have been those which held that a subsidized landlord could not evict a tenant in retaliation against the tenant’s exercise of First Amendment rights, such as organizing or the reporting a landlord’s conduct to authorities.194

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.1.1 Overview

The unexcused and unjustified, chronic non-payment of rent is well-established as good cause for eviction from federally supported housing. HUD regulations for most programs specifically cite failure to make payments due under the lease as sufficient grounds to terminate a tenancy.200 Numerous court decisions have upheld evictions for non-payment.201

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.1.4 Illegal Overpayments by Tenant

If a landlord has improperly collected payments from the tenant in the past, those illegal payments can be credited against any unpaid rent a tenant may owe in a nonpayment eviction proceeding.212 In one case, the court dismissed a subsidized landlord’s suit for nonpayment of $154 in rent when the tenant proved she had previously paid more than $155 in late fees that had not been approved by HUD.213 In another case, a tenant successfully resisted eviction for nonpayment of rent where the PHA

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.1.5 Inclusion of Late Fees and Other Charges with Rent

The public housing regulations separate the payments due under the lease into three categories: rent, extra charges and late payment penalties.215, A PHA may not treat other charges, such as attorney fees, late charges, court costs, or charges for excess utility usage or property damage as “rent.”216 Regulations for the HUD-subsidized programs also define rent separately from other charges.217 The HUD-required model lease for privately-owned

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.1.11 Eligibility for Additional Subsidies

A defense for nonpayment may be available to tenants who are eligible for additional subsidies that would reduce the amount of rent they owe, but who have not received them or are not aware of them. In projects with flat or formula rents where some tenants are not receiving Section 8 subsidies under an available contract, this defense may be crucial. It is similar to the PHA’s duty to promptly switch public housing tenants from flat rents to income-based rents if their income drops in order to avoid eviction.317

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.2.4 Guests and Unauthorized Occupants

Some PHAs and many subsidized landlords excessively restrict the ability for tenants to have guests overnight or stay for longer periods, often through trespass or guest ban policies.366 Courts have regularly thrown out prohibitions against hosting short-term guests without management’s permission and evictions based upon such prohibitions.367 The constitutional rights of public housing tenants to have guests is well analyzed in McKenna v.

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.4.1 Overview

Because of its impact on residents, criminal activity in public and subsidized housing has long been an important concern.514 Some landlords and PHAs have used evictions as the primary, if not exclusive, tool to combat crime in assisted housing. As a result, policies regarding evictions for criminal conduct have provoked much controversy.

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.4.4 Nature and Location of the Criminal Activity

In cases alleging criminal activity that is not drug-related, a guiding question is whether the conduct injures or threatens injury to other tenants or the project.563 The only statutes on this point both specify that the criminal activity must threaten the health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the premises of other tenants, or be drug-related.564 Criminal activity that is neither drug-related not adversely affects others who live in the development or neighbors in the i

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.4.5 Timing of the Criminal Activity

Prior criminal activity is genrally irrelevant once a tenant is admitted,592 as events before a lease begins obviously cannot breach that lease.593 Even for conduct that occurs during the tenancy, a breach may also be waived if the landlord executes a new lease with knowledge of the offense.594 However, pre-admission criminal activity can become grounds for eviction in three scenarios: where the tenant fails to disclose the criminal history,