Cuyahoga Metro Housing Authority Hit with Civil Rights Lawsuit

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The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) is facing a proposed class action that alleges its policy and practice of not including month-to-month fees and short-term lease fees paid to landlords as part of the “contract rent” under the agency’s Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) violates proposed class members’ civil rights and denied them their rightful benefits under the federally funded program.

The 13-page lawsuit notes the HCVP is a federal subsidy program for very low income families and individuals that affords participants a lease for private rental units for which a public agency like CMHA pays the landlord. The plaintiff, a Cleveland resident, alleges that after he declined to execute a new lease for occupancy in his rental unit, he continued living there on month-to-month terms from February 1, 2014 through roughly October 31, 2015, for which he was charged a $100 per month month-to-month fee.

“Under the HCVP and Ohio law, [the plaintiff’s] month-to-month fees are part of the contract rent under [the plaintiff’s] lease,” the case argues, adding that these month-to-month fees, on top of the plaintiff’s original $541 monthly rent, caused the man significant financial hardship.