HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (The Green Book): 11.2.4.6.1 Overview
PHAs and other landlords sometimes attempt to evict tenants because of some improper motive, such as racial or other unlawful discrimination, exercise of First Amendment rights, or retailiation. Evictions brought for such improper reasons can be defended on either of two basic grounds: either the lack of good cause (if needed) defeats the landlords’s prima facie claim for possession, or the improper motive serves as an affirmative defense.