The Legal Aid Society brought a class action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of Section 8 tenants to challenge NYCHA’s methods of terminating Section 8 payments to landlords without prior notice to tenants or a pretermination hearing. We also challenged NYCHA’s absence as a party from eviction proceedings brought against tenants in Housing Court for nonpayment of NYCHA’s share of the rent, which denied those tenants the ability to litigate the validity of NYCHA’s termination of their benefits.

The action was resolved through two partial consent judgments. In 1984, we entered into a consent decree which established procedures for Section 8 tenants to challenge a NYCHA decision to discontinue or terminate Section 8 rent-share payments. In 1995, we agreed to notice and objection procedures for tenants in eviction proceedings related to NYCHA’s non-payment of rent due to the termination of Section 8 benefits.