NYCHA's Decision to Evict Elderly Tenant Ruled Unfair

Tenant appealed NYCHA's decision to terminate her tenancy. The court ruled for tenant and sent the case back to NYCHA for imposition of a lesser penalty. NYCHA appealed and lost. The appeals court found that the penalty of eviction was shocking to one's sense of fairness. Tenant had violated a permanent exclusion stipulation signed with NYCHA. But tenant was over 70 years old, had lived in the building for more than 35 years with no record of prior offenses, didn't present any risk to other tenants or to NYCHA property, and was in the process of applying for removal of the permanent exclusion prior to NYCHA's hearing. She had submitted to NYCHA documents supporting her application, which weren't considered at the hearing.

Allen v. NYCHA: 104 A.D.3d 589, 2013 NY Slip Op 02015 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 3/26/13; Andrias, JP, Saxe, Moskowitz, Abdus-Salaam, Manzanet-Daniels, JJ)