HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 10.4.1 Overview
For the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, there is both an “informal review” process (for applicants) and an “informal hearing” process (for participants).
For the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, there is both an “informal review” process (for applicants) and an “informal hearing” process (for participants).
The informal review is made available to certain aggrieved voucher applicants. At the applicant’s request, a PHA must provide an informal review to contest a PHA decision effectively denying admission,189 although certain determinations are unreviewable.
Voucher participants are entitled to a prior informal hearing when the PHA proposes to terminate Voucher assistance. For detailed review of the informal hearing process in the context of Voucher terminations, see infra § 11.4.4.4.
Voucher participants are also entitled to an informal hearing to contest certain PHA actions other than termination, which are specified by the regulations as follows:
For situations other than termination (listed above), the regulations only require the PHA to notify the family that the family may ask for an explanation of the PHA’s determination and may request a hearing if it disagrees.199 The Housing Choice Voucher Guidebook, however, imposes more stringent notice requirements, including:
The timing of the informal hearing must be “reasonably expeditious.”202 Although the Voucher Guidebook states that for certain PHA actions (changes in total tenant payment, denial of a Voucher, or unit size determination for a family seeking to move), the PHA may implement the change prior to the hearing,203 such actions may violate due process in certain circumstances.
There is no required dispute resolution procedure to resolve landlord-tenant issues between a private landlord and a Voucher participant.
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
2020 Management Reform Plan: A 1997 HUD plan to, among other things, address identified management weaknesses and down-size department staff by about 3,000 persons by 2002.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA): Federal law that prohibits debt collectors from using abusive, unfair or deceptive practices to collect debts from individuals. Codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.
Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH): A law amending and reauthorizing the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. HEARTH consolidated several of HUD’s homeless assistance programs and amended HUD’s definition of homelessness.
Income Deduction: HUD program regulations specify the types and amounts of income and deductions to be included in the calculation of annual and adjusted income. These can include deductions for child care expenses, medical expenses, and senior/disabled/minor tenants.
Income Exclusion: Certain funds received from specific sources from household income that are not counted as income for rent calculation purposes.
Lead Safe Housing Rule: A HUD rule that applies to all HUD-assisted and owned housing that prescribes lead-based paint abatement or removal when a development receives financial assistance.
Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Rule: A rule promulgated by HUD and the Environmental Protection Agency that requires the disclosure of known information on lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards before the sale or lease of most housing built before 1978. See 24 C.F.R. pt. 35.
Management Improvement and Operating (MIO) Plan: A plan that must be completed by owners of developments that seek HUD financial assistance under the HUD Flexible Subsidy Program (i.e. Operating Assistance and Capital Improvement Loan Program). The plan lists the actions that owners will take to rectify problems and deficiencies identified in the development.
National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT): A tenant-controlled alliance of tenant organizations in privately owned, multifamily HUD-assisted housing. The organization promotes the preservation of affordable housing, protection of tenants’ rights, and tenant ownership and control of HUD multifamily housing.
Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (QHWRA): Federal housing act that made significant changes in the public housing and Section 8 programs. Pub. L. No. 105–276.
Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC): HUD office that is responsible for evaluating the financial and physical condition of all the public and assisted housing developments funded by HUD. It is also responsible for taking action against troubled public and assisted housing developments that fail the financial and physical inspections standards.
Schumer Amendment: An amendment to HUD appropriations acts, first introduced by Senator Schumer, that restricts HUD’s authority to terminate project-based assistance contracts when HUD is foreclosing or disposing HUD-owned properties.
Tenant Rental Assistance Certification System (TRACS): A HUD computer system developed to help improve financial controls over assisted housing programs. It maintains a secure database of housing assistance payment information for properties and individuals receiving HUD financial assistance.
Uniform Relocation Act (URA): Formally titled the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies for Federal and Federally Assisted Programs, this statute was enacted in 1970. It establishes minimum standards for federally funded projects that involve property acquisition or displacement of people. The intent of the URA is to provide fair and equitable treatment of persons whose real property is acquired or who are displaced in connection with federally funded project.