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HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 10.2.3.4.5 Right to Representation

The resident has an unqualified right to be represented by counsel or any other person chosen as a representative and to have the representative make statements on the resident’s behalf.87 It is also the tenant’s right to designate a contact person and the PHA’s obligation to communicate with the designated contact person.88 Advocates should encourage the PHA to provide referrals to free or low-cost legal services in its adopted grievance procedure and on its general grievance notices and request fo

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 10.2.3.4.8 The Grievance Hearing Decision

The hearing officer or panel must prepare a written decision within a reasonable time after the hearing.122 Copies of the decision must be sent to both parties.123 The PHA must retain a copy of the decision in the tenant’s folder.124 The PHA must also maintain a log of all grievance hearing decisions and make that log available upon request of a hearing officer, a prospective complainant, or a prospective complainant’s representative.

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 10.2.5.3 Implementing the Grievance Procedure

After adoption of the procedure, residents should consider other steps to ensure successful implementation of the grievance process. To make the procedure useful, resident organizations and their legal advocates should encourage the PHA to conduct training workshops for residents, PHA personnel, hearing officers, and panel members. Residents should participate in the planning and conduct of these workshops to ensure that they reflect the needs and concerns of both parties.

HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 10.5 Challenging Citizenship Eligibility Determinations

A non-citizen applicant, tenant, or program participant determined ineligible due to citizenship status is entitled to a hearing to contest that determination.

Tenants. The applicable hearing rights for tenants vary by specific program. For public housing tenants, the hearing procedure is the grievance procedure, and for voucher tenants, the hearing procedure is the informal hearing.207

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

Active Partners Participation System (APPS): HUD automated filing system by which applicants for financial assistance disclose past participation in HUD’s multifamily housing mortgage insurance programs. See 24 C.F.R. pt. 200, subpt. H. This system replaces form HUD 2530 Previous Participation Certificate.

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

Brooke Amendment: A federal law, first enacted in 1969, that limits tenants’ rent payments, including utilities, to a percentage of income. When first enacted the limit was 25 percent of adjusted income. The current limit is 30 percent of adjusted income.

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

Capital fund: Funding for public housing that is appropriated annually by Congress and that HUD distributes to public housing agencies based on a formula. The capital fund can be used for modernization, including developing, rehabilitating, and demolishing units; replacement housing; and management improvements.

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

Demolition: The razing, in whole or in part, of one or more permanent buildings of a public housing project.

Department Enforcement Center (DEC): Part of HUD’s office of General Counsel, the center focuses on assuring the highest standards of ethics, management and accountability in the resolution of HUD’s troubled multifamily and single-family properties.

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

Emergency Low-Income Housing Preservation Act of 1987 (ELIHPA): Title II of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987, which established two-year restrictions upon owners’ rights to prepay HUD-insured or HUD-held mortgages, which would have otherwise been eligible for prepayment without HUD approval. Codified at 12 U.S.C. § 1715l.