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NAHRO Praises HUD v. Rucker Decision
NAHRO lauds the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in HUD v. Rucker/Oakland Housing Authority v. Rucker, handed down on March 26.
"We felt strongly that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in the Rucker case, if upheld, would have entailed profoundly negative effects on the ability of local housing agencies to control illegal drugs and crime in their developments," said NAHRO Executive Director Saul N. Ramirez, Jr. "As a practical matter, LHAs usually have no reliable means of proving a tenant's state of mind or knowledge of criminal activity. Requiring such proof was unrealistic." The Supreme Court's decision brought an end to the considerable confusion among courts that had ruled upon the "innocent tenant" issues.
NAHRO staff also pointed out that the Rucker decision clarifies that LHAs have the discretion to determine when eviction is appropriate, once illegal drug or other criminal activity, on the part of a household member or guest, has taken place. LHAs are best positioned to make the often difficult decision on when eviction is necessary and it is appropriate that they, rather than the courts, do so. However, now that the Supreme Court has clarified their discretionary power, it is incumbent on the LHAs to act with care and thoughtfulness in making these decisions.
NAHRO had argued that, from a national policy standpoint, the innocent tenant issues involve a choice about how the scarce resource of public housing will be allocated among needy families. "In reality, the choice is whether to allocate this precious resource to a family whose members engage in criminal activity instead of providing it to an equally needy family whose members do not commit crimes," Ramirez said.
This decision reaffirms the regulatory position taken by HUD since 1991: the public housing lease is a contract and should be enforced as such. This contract requires tenants to assure that members of the household and guests will not engage in criminal activity. The Supreme Court made it clear that, in requiring this of tenants, Congress had not acted unconstitutionally. Thus, the Rucker decision restores the LHAs to the legal position they occupied before the innocent tenant cases began appearing in the courts in the mid-1990s.
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