The City of Los Angeles could be on the hook for millions of dollars after a federal court ruled that its Housing Authority illegally cut subsidies for more than 20,000 Section 8 recipients.
In its decision Monday, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the agency failed to properly notify recipients about impending cuts to their rent subsidies in 2004, instead sending out “incomprehensible” flyers that did not provide the necessary information.
“In no respect does [the flier] reasonably inform its intended recipients of the changes to the payment standard, the meaning of those changes, or, most important, their effect upon the recipient," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the ruling. In fact, the court said the flyer was so confusing that the recipients could have misconstrued the change as a subsidy increase.
Moreover, while federal law requires a year’s notice for such changes, the court determined that the Housing Authority had only sent the information four weeks prior. The reductions, which came about as a result of federal budget cuts, led to an average 104 additional dollars in rent.
Read more about the ruling here.
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