Opinion ID: 205533
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Right To Remain and Enhanced Vouchers

Text: Defendants contend that the enhanced voucher provisions merely require that HUD provide vouchers to eligible tenants. They argue that the statute does not require them to permit tenants to remain in the Apartments, and does not require them to accept enhanced vouchers as payment for rent. Stated another way, Defendants claim that they may raise rents in the Apartments to the fair market rate, and may refuse to accept vouchers in partial payment of those increased rents. In its current form, the relevant portion of the statute provides: [T]he assisted family may elect to remain in the same project in which the family was residing on the date of the eligibility event for the project, and if, during any period the family makes such an election and continues to so reside, the rent for the dwelling unit of the family in such project exceeds the applicable payment standard established pursuant to subsection ( o ) for the unit, the amount of rental assistance provided on behalf of the family shall be determined using a payment standard that is equal to the rent for the dwelling unit.... 42 U.S.C. § 1437f(t)(1)(B) (emphasis added). The Secretary has interpreted the italicized language as giving eligible tenants a right to remain, enforceable against owners who would seek to evict them, so long as the tenants pay their portion of the rent as defined in Section 8. Every federal court to consider the question to date has agreed with the Secretary's construction of 42 U.S.C. § 1437f(t)(1)(B). See Feemster v. BSA Ltd. P'ship, 548 F.3d 1063 (D.C.Cir.2008), aff'g in relevant part, 471 F.Supp.2d 87 (D.D.C.2007); Barrientos v. 1801-1825 Morton, LLC, No. 06-6437, 2007 WL 7213974 (C.D.Cal. Sept. 11, 2007), aff'd on other grounds, 583 F.3d 1197 (9th Cir. 2009); Estevez v. Cosmopolitan Assocs. LLC, No. 05CR-4318, 2005 WL 3164146 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 28, 2005); Jeanty v. Shore Terrace Realty Ass'n, No. 03CIV-8669, 2004 WL 1794496 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 10, 2004). We also agree with the Secretary's construction of § 1437f(t). The statute gives assisted families the right to remain in the same project. The statute also authorizes owners to raise their rents to a reasonable market rate and to receive a housing assistance payment, by means of an enhanced voucher, to cover the authorized increases in rent. It does not authorize owners to raise their rents to a reasonable market rate, but then to refuse to accept payment by means of an enhanced voucher, and evict an assisted family for nonpayment of rent. Practically, the statute requires owners to permit tenants to remain in the housing complex while paying only their statutorily prescribed portion of the rent. Our reading (and the Secretary's reading) of § 1437f(t) is supported both by the plain language of the statute, and by the language of the statutory provision that preceded it. A year before the enactment of the current statutory language, Congress had enacted language that did not explicitly provide a right to remain. That earlier statutory language had simply provided that a family was entitled to an enhanced voucher during any period that the assisted family continues residing in the same project. Pub. L. No. 106-74, § 538, 113 Stat. 1047, 1122 (1999). Congress then amended the statute in 2000 explicitly to provide that the assisted family may elect to remain in the same project. Pub. L. No. 106-246, § 2801, 114 Stat. 511, 569 (2000). Defendants contend that § 1437f(t) confers a right that is enforceable against only the Secretary. They assert that the 2000 amendment requires the Secretary to provide enhanced vouchers to eligible tenants, and that it prevents the Secretary from forcing a tenant with an enhanced voucher to leave his or her dwelling unit, but that it places no obligation on an owner of the unit. We disagree with Defendants' reading of § 1437f(t). First, if Congress's intent in amending the statute in 2000 had been merely to provide that the Secretary was obligated to supply families with enhanced vouchers while they remained in their existing units, the amendment making explicit the tenant's right to remain would have been unnecessary. Second, there is a separate statutory provision that already required the Secretary to provide enhanced vouchers to eligible families. See 42 U.S.C. § 1437f note, MAHRAA § 524(d). Further, HUD's Section 8 Renewal Policy Guide provides that under § 1437f(t)(1)(B), tenants with enhanced vouchers have a right to remain, and that owners must honor that right. See U.S. DEP'T OF HOUS. & URBAN DEV., SECTION 8 RENEWAL POLICY: GUIDANCE FOR THE RENEWAL OF PROJECT-BASED SECTION 8 CONTRACTS (Jan. 15, 2008), at 8-1, 11-3B (hereinafter Guide). The Guide conditions an owner's ability to opt-out of the project-based assistance program on the owner's provision of an acceptable one-year notification to tenants, including a letter stat[ing] that the owner will honor the right of residents to remain, and on certification to HUD that the owner will honor the tenants['] right to remain at the property as long as it continues to be offered for rental housing if the PHA approves a rent equal to the new rent charged for the unit, unless the owner has grounds for eviction under State or local law. Id. at 8-1A.3; see also id. at 1-5.I. The Guide provides that the right to remain lasts [a]s long as the property is offered for rental housing, and that the owners must continually renew the lease of an enhanced voucher family, absent good cause to terminate tenancy. Id. at 11-3B.2. The Guide is an agency interpretation not entitled to Chevron deference, but it is nevertheless `entitled to a measure of respect under the less deferential Skidmore standard.' Barrientos, 583 F.3d at 1214 (quoting Fed. Express Corp. v. Holowecki, 552 U.S. 389, 399, 128 S.Ct. 1147, 170 L.Ed.2d 10 (2008)). Furthermore, every court to consider the question has concluded that § 1437f(t) affords tenants a right to remain, exercisable as against the owner. Feemster, 548 F.3d at 1069 ([T]he district court correctly determined that the tenants' right under § 1437f(t) to remain in their homes, and to pay their rent with enhanced vouchers, is secure unless and until their tenancies are validly terminated under [local] law.); Barrientos, 2007 WL 7213974, at  ([T]he enhanced voucher provision creates a right for tenants to remain in tenancy upon an `eligibility event' as defined in that provision. The plain language of the statute ... indicates that it is up to the assisted family, not the owner, to decide whether to continue tenancy upon occurrence of the eligibility event.); Estevez, 2005 WL 3164146, at  (The text of 42 U.S.C. § 1437f(t), given its ordinary meaning, makes clear that tenants renting apartments in developments receiving project-based assistance will, upon the termination of that assistance, have the right to remain in their apartments as long as they remain eligible and continue to occupy the apartments.); Jeanty, 2004 WL 1794496, at  (Giving the words used in 42 U.S.C. § 1437f(t)(1) and (2) their ordinary meaning, it is clear that the statute provides families renting at the time of the termination of the project-based subsidy contract the right to remain in their units, using enhanced vouchers, for so long as the tenant remains eligible for the vouchers or until the tenant is evicted.). Defendants have not offered any persuasive reason why we should flout the clear language of the statute, or depart from the Secretary's or numerous federal courts' constructions of the statute. We therefore hold that § 1437f(t) provides tenants a right to remain in their rental units absent just cause for eviction, and that tenants with enhanced vouchers cannot be required to pay more than the tenant's portion of the rent as defined by the Section 8 statute and applicable regulations.