Opinion ID: 445604
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hackett and the Grounds for His Complaint

Text: 9 Hackett started participating in the section 8 program in 1975. From 1961 through 1970, he had purchased approximately fifty structures that the United States had constructed in the 1940's to house military officers. The housing stood in the Carson Homes area, a predominantly black neighborhood on the eastern side of San Antonio, and the units ranged in size from one to four bedrooms. A broker who had managed the property in Hackett's absence offered at least some of the units in 1975 for section 8, low-income tenants. In 1976, Hackett settled in the city, and he and his family undertook refurbishment of the units. They performed most of the work themselves, repairing various defects and installing new appliances, such as stoves and refrigerators. He or his wife often stayed in one of the units to provide management services. 10 The events that provoked this action began in 1981. In the early part of that year, Hackett perceived that SAHA inspectors had started to determine the rents he could charge section 8 tenants by comparing his units only to others in the surrounding, predominantly black neighborhood rather than also to similar units in other parts of San Antonio. He complained to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD responded with a letter advising Hackett that HUD had found no basis for his grievance and stating that the comparable rents do not support the rents you are asking. In April, Hackett informed the SAHA that an inspector, a white woman, had approved one of his units for $260 despite her feeling that it warranted $290. The inspector's superior, a black man, arranged a meeting later that day with Hackett, his wife, and the inspector to discuss the matter. The inspector informed the Hacketts that she had applied the rent reasonableness limitation in 24 C.F.R. Sec. 882.106(b), and that the SAHA could accordingly offer no more than $260. The supervisor indicated that he would follow her recommendation. Hackett refused the offer and decided to remove the unit from the program. 11 In June 1981, Hackett objected to SAHA's reductions of his section 8 rents, and he continued his complaints through the end of the year. He lodged another complaint with HUD but later withdrew it. In most instances, SAHA officials told Hackett that the regulations required them to compare his units with others in the Carson Homes area. SAHA inspectors and their superiors spent a good deal of time responding to Hackett's complaints through inspections, studies, and meetings, but they failed to satisfy his demands. Hackett consequently refused several of SAHA's rent offers but kept a number of his other units in the subsidy program. 12 In late 1981, the controversy between Hackett and the SAHA reached an impasse. In response to Hackett's rejection of an inspector's rent offers in November, Rod Fauser, SAHA's Chief Inspector for Leased Housing, conducted an investigation of Hackett's complaints. Fauser accompanied the inspector on a reinspection of two of Hackett's units. He also examined dwellings in the surrounding neighborhoods, consulted a real estate agent, and reviewed a study that another inspector had prepared on rents in the Carson Homes area. He concluded that the Carson Homes rents exceeded reasonable levels, and he recorded his findings in a memorandum to the Director of Leased Housing, M.E. Bass. The memorandum recommended specific dollar amounts for each of five unit sizes (according to number of bedrooms) in the area. 13 On December 3, 1981, Bass embodied Fauser's recommendation in a letter to Hackett and his wife. The letter responded to a meeting that Bass had held with the Hacketts. It stated that rents for converted military barrack-type units in the Carson Homes area of San Antonio may be approved for Section 8 families in accordance with Fauser's schedule. Bass advised the Hacketts that the SAHA would not renew their expired assistance contracts except at those rates. Bass did not send a copy of the letter or a similar document to other section 8 landlords in the Carson Homes area, nor did he present the schedule to owners of section 8 units in other parts of San Antonio. Hackett refused to accept Bass's offer but continued to participate in the program. Following various further controversies, Hackett filed this suit against the SAHA for damages, a declaratory judgment, and injunctive relief.