HPD Must Restore Disabled Tenant's Section 8 Subsidy

Tenant sought Article 78 court review of HPD's decision to terminate her Section 8 rent subsidy for inaccurate income reporting. In March 2011, HPD had noticed a difference between what tenant reported as income and what appeared on HUD Income Verification documents. Tenant claimed that HPD's decision was unreasonable. She admitted that her income wasn't accurately reported, but claimed that this was unintentional due to her genuine confusion as to which months she was receiving unemployment benefits and which months she was working part time. Tenant suffered from mental disabilities, and was a single mother with two severely disabled daughters. She was now living in a homeless shelter. The court ruled for tenant and vacated HPD's order terminating her subsidy. HPD was ordered to reconsider and impose a lesser penalty. Given tenant's otherwise good record with the Section 8 program, her disabilities, and the severe disabilities of her minor children, HPD's decision to terminate tenant's Section 8 subsidy shocked the conscience.

Oliver v. Cestero: NYLJ No. 1202597926708, Index No. 401260/12 (Sup. Ct. NY; 4/19/13; Ling-Cohan, J)