Seattle Housing recently entered into a
settlement agreement that deals with how the agency conducts
hearings for Housing Choice Voucher program (Section 8) participants
who are about to be terminated from the program. The agreement
settled a lawsuit that had been brought against SHA by the Northwest
Justice Project on behalf of a Section 8 participant.
Both the Northwest Justice Project and the
Tenants Union had previously raised concerns about whether SHA’s
hearing process was fair to participants and consistent with HUD’s
regulations, and met due process standards. In the lawsuit, the
court found that SHA was following HUD’s hearing guidelines but
expressed concerns about whether HUD’s guidelines met constitutional
due process standards.
Because SHA shared some of the court’s
concerns, rather than litigate the issue SHA viewed this as an
opportunity to look at ways to improve the hearing process. As a
result, SHA agreed to the following changes in the Section 8 hearing
procedures for terminating a Section 8 voucher.
- SHA will hire a panel of hearing officers, and hearings will
be conducted by individuals on this panel on a rotating basis.
- Hearing officers will have legal training (that is, will be
law school graduates) and will receive specific training in the
Section 8 program.
- Hearing officer applicants will be interviewed by a
five-member panel comprising three people from SHA, one person
appointed by the Tenants Union and one appointed by the King
Count Bar Association’s Housing Justice Project Group.
This panel will make non-binding hiring recommendations to SHA's
general counsel.
- At termination hearings, participants will be allowed to
present issues they deem relevant.
- The principles of the rules of evidence will be observed.
- The hearing officer’s written decision will include formal
written findings of fact and conclusions of law.
- Hearing officers' performance will be reviewed annually
using SHA’s standard employee review procedures.
For more information about the new Section 8 hearing procedures, call Seattle Housing
Authority’s General Counsel, James Fearn, at 206-615-3570,
or e-mail him at jfearn@seattlehousing.org
