Class Action Claims Omaha Housing Authority Failed to Inform Tenants of Rent Exemption, Grievance Hearing Rights

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges the Omaha Housing Authority (OHA) has deprived low-income tenants of their federally protected rights to rent exemptions and grievance hearings.

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The 33-page lawsuit says that under the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (QHWRA), public housing agencies such as OHA are authorized to charge extremely low-income families a minimum monthly rent of $50, but they must waive that rent minimum if the household is experiencing a qualifying financial hardship. The case alleges the government agency has since at least 2017 adhered to a policy of not informing eligible tenants about this hardship exemption or their right to request it when they fall behind on rent.

“Instead, OHA hid the information about the hardship exemption from tenants, demanded the minimum rent and late fees, and even filed eviction proceedings against them when they could not pay,” the filing says.

The complaint goes on to claim that OHA, from at least 2017 through September 2023, violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause by failing to adequately notify tenants of their right to request a hearing to dispute rent increases. It wasn’t until after the publication of a series of local news reports exposing OHA’s allegedly unconstitutional practices that the agency sent a letter to residents in December 2023 acknowledging that its rent determination letters lacked required information about their grievance rights, the suit says.

“OHA did not provide any more information to tenants on what challenging a past rent determination would mean,” the filing notes. “For example, OHA did not inform tenants that their rent may have been miscalculated for a span of years and they may be entitled to a substantial rent reimbursement.”

What’s more, OHA’s current public housing residential lease contains no information about the minimum rent hardship exemption or how tenants may apply for it, the lawsuit contends.

According to the case, the QHWRA states that public housing tenants may be exempt from the minimum monthly rental amount if their family cannot pay due to a non-exhaustive list of situations in which a household meets the law’s definition of “financial hardship.” For instance, a family may be entitled to the hardship exemption should their income decrease because of changed circumstances, if they lose eligibility for governmental assistance, or if they would otherwise face eviction for nonpayment of the minimum rent, the complaint relays.

One of the suit’s four plaintiffs is a woman with zero income who has paid the minimum rent of $50 for nearly all seven years she’s resided in her OHA unit, the case says. Although the plaintiff has inquired several times about how she could pay her rent with no income, OHA staff never informed the woman of her right to request a hardship exemption and instead threatened to evict her numerous times, the complaint contends.

“Even though a tenant’s risk of eviction is grounds for a hardship exemption, [the plaintiff] was sued by OHA for eviction from the premises for nonpayment of rent twice in 2023 for nonpayment as rent,” the filing shares.

Another plaintiff claims he often brought to the attention of OHA staff that he disagreed with the multiple rent increases he has been subjected to since becoming a resident in 2019.

“In response, OHA staff told him he could move,” the case says, claiming the man was never told about his right to challenge these decisions until he received the defendant’s December 2023 letter.

Per the suit, OHA provides roughly 2,500 units of public housing in the city.

The Omaha Housing Authority rent exemption lawsuit looks to represent any current or former public housing tenants in OHA units whose rent has been set at the federally authorized minimum of $50 per month. The suit also seeks to cover any current or former public housing tenants in OHA units who received an initial rent determination or subsequent rent determination that did not advise tenants of their federally mandated right to request a hearing.

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