Tenants Have No Private Right of Action to Challenge Utility Allowance

摘要

Tenants participating in the Section 8 housing choice Voucher program have no private right of action to challenge their housing authority's calculation of utility allowance or force its increase, ruled the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. (Johnson v. Housing Authority of Jefferson Parish, No. Civ. A. 04-1128, 2004 WL 2414095 (E.D.La.), October 28, 2004) The plaintiff voucher holders brought an action against the Jefferson Parish Housing Authority (JPHA), its executive director, and the Louisiana Housing Development Corporation, seeking to force the JPHA to raise its utility allowance as required by federal law. The plaintiffs claimed that 24 C.F.R. Section 982.517(c) requires the JPHA to revise its utility allowance if the base rates have changed 10 percent or more. After plaintiffs filed the suit, the JPHA revised the utility allowance, but plaintiffs alleged that the JPHA did not comply widi the regulatory requirement to base the allowance on "typical costs of utilities and services paid by energy-conservative households that occupy housing of similar size and type in the same locality."