Enforcing and Expanding Due Process for Public and Subsidized Housing Tenants Facing Eviction for Alleged Criminal Activity Through Litigation and Policy Advocacy
Defending evictions claiming criminal activity in public and subsidized housing remains mysterious and complicated to many legal services attorneys. The decision in Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker, 122 S. Ct. 1230 (2002), led many to believe that tenants facing such claims have no choice but to move. To the contrary, tenants have many available defenses from federal, state, and local law which are easy to overlook. We will discuss the required eviction elements for each program and relevant defenses, using examples to aid in issue spotting, efforts at federal, state, and local levels to develop more appropriate eviction policies, and recent developments.
- Find the federal, state and local statutes, regulations, ordinances and common law governing criminal activity eviction cases in all of the public and subsidized housing programs.
- Advocate with legislatures, state and local government, and public housing authorities to promote more humane eviction policies.
- Develop volunteer attorney programs for representation in public and subsidized housing eviction cases to supplement legal aid representation.
Larry McDonough
Senior Fellow
National Housing Law Project
Larry McDonough is a Senior Fellow at the National Housing Law Project. He has been a legal services and pro bono civil litigation attorney since 1983, working for Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid as a staff and managing housing attorney, private firm Pro Bono Litigation Counsel, and housing litigator with other nonprofits. He has represented over 10,000 clients, with 250 trials, 1,000 motion hearings, and scores of appeals under his belt, along with drafting housing legislation, creating housing clinics, and law school teaching. He maintains the popular website Housing Law in Minnesota. His focus at NHLP is updating the HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (also known as the Green Book) and other publications. When not helping tenants and their advocates, he plays jazz in the United States and France.