Section 8 Voucher Terminated or Denied: How to Request a Hearing

If your housing authority says it will end your Section 8 voucher, you have a federal right to an informal hearing, and the agency must hold it before it stops paying your landlord, as long as you ask by the deadline printed on the notice, which can be as short as 10 business days. A hearing officer who did not make the decision hears both sides and sends a written decision with reasons; families turned down before their first assisted lease get an informal review instead. Today, send a written hearing request to the address on your notice, keep proof of the date, and ask for a copy of your file.

Which decisions get a hearing or a review

A participant family, meaning one whose first assisted lease has started, gets an informal hearing on these public housing agency (PHA) decisions:

• Ending assistance for something the household did or failed to do, such as a missed recertification, unreported income, a serious lease violation or criminal activity.
• Ending assistance because the family was away from the unit too long. PHA policy sets the limit, and federal rules cap it at 180 consecutive days.
• Your counted income and the rent share figured from it, your utility allowance, or your voucher's bedroom size. You can ask the PHA to explain its figures, and if you still disagree, request the hearing.

The termination notice must give a brief statement of the reasons, say that you can request an informal hearing, and state the deadline. The PHA owes no hearing when it refuses to extend a voucher's search time, rejects a unit or lease, fails a unit on inspection, or acts against your landlord; it owes one when it ends your assistance over an inspection failure it blames on your family. Our failed inspection guide covers the repair side.

A family that has applied but has no assisted lease yet is an applicant, and that includes a family whose voucher is withdrawn during the housing search. The denial notice must give the reasons and explain how to get an informal review. In a review or a hearing, the person deciding cannot be the one who made or approved the decision or anyone who reports to that person.

What your PHA's administrative plan sets

Each PHA's administrative plan sets the deadline and the timing. Three agencies show the range:

What to do today

1. Mark the deadline. Find the request deadline and the address, email or form your notice names, and count from the date it uses.
2. Send the request in writing. Use the letter below. Hand-deliver it for a date-stamped copy, or email it and save the sent message; by mail, use tracking.
3. Ask for your file in the same letter. You can examine every PHA document directly relevant to the hearing before it starts and copy them at your own cost. If the PHA refuses to show you a document, it cannot rely on it at the hearing. When the decision rests on a criminal record, the PHA must give you a copy of that record.
4. Collect proof that answers each stated reason. Gather pay stubs, receipts, doctor letters, court dispositions and signed statements, and ask witnesses to come.
5. Keep the tenancy in good standing. Pay your rent share on time, and give the PHA a copy of any eviction notice from your landlord right away, as program rules require.
6. Call free legal aid. Find your state's program at LawHelp.org and give the date on your notice.

What happens at the hearing

• Representation: a lawyer or anyone else you choose can speak for you, at your own expense.
• Evidence: you and the PHA each present evidence and question witnesses. Court rules of evidence are set aside, so letters, records and written statements all count.
• Your documents: if the PHA's procedures let it examine your documents beforehand and you refuse, you lose the right to use them.
• Standard of proof: the officer decides the facts on a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. The PHA can end assistance for criminal activity on that standard even without an arrest or conviction, and you can challenge whether a criminal record is accurate and whether it is relevant to your case.
• What the PHA can weigh: how serious the problem was, which family members took part, and how ending assistance would affect members who had no part in it. For past drug or alcohol abuse, the PHA can consider proof that the person finished or is in a supervised rehabilitation program.
• Grounds that force termination: an eviction from your assisted unit for a serious lease violation, a family member's failure to sign and submit the required consent forms, and a household member's conviction for making methamphetamine in federally assisted housing. For these, the hearing turns on whether the facts are true, though VAWA and disability accommodation still apply.
• Phone or video hearings: if the PHA schedules one and you lack the phone, device or internet to take full part, tell the PHA before the date; HUD guidance says the PHA must then postpone or offer an in-person hearing.

Where your case splits

• If the deadline has passed, send the request now with proof of why you were late, such as a hospital record or a mail problem. Boston weighs late requests for compelling reasons for 30 more days; NYC HPD has a 90-day grace period for good cause backed by third-party proof.
• If one household member caused the problem, ask the PHA to keep assisting the rest of the family on the condition that this person moves out.
• If you are a survivor of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) bars ending your assistance because of the abuse, including criminal activity tied to the abuse by a household member or guest. The PHA must send its VAWA rights notice (form HUD-5380) and certification form (HUD-5382) with any termination notice. If it asks in writing for documentation, return the certification or a police, court or professional's record within 14 business days. The PHA can end the abuser's assistance and keep yours.
• If a disability played a part, such as a hospital stay that made you miss a recertification, ask in writing for a reasonable accommodation: reconsideration, more time, or a hearing format you can use. The PHA must consider that request before deciding, and disability-related circumstances are among the factors it weighs.
• If the PHA says you owe it money, for example after unreported income, offer a repayment agreement. The PHA decides whether to offer one and sets the terms, and missing payments under it is its own ground for termination.
• If your landlord is also evicting you, answer the court case by its deadline; our eviction help guide lists where to start.

What you can win, and who backs you

• A decision the PHA must follow. A hearing ruling for you binds the PHA unless the matter fell outside the hearing rules or the ruling conflicts with HUD rules or the law. If the PHA refuses to follow it, the PHA must promptly tell you so and why.
• A fair housing complaint. If the PHA refused a reasonable accommodation or treated you differently because of disability, race, color, religion, national origin, sex or children in the home, file with HUD's fair housing office within one year of the last incident.
• Court review if you lose. In New York, a court challenge to the hearing decision (an Article 78 case) must be filed within four months after the decision becomes final. Take the decision to legal aid right away.

Hearing request letter

To: [PHA name], [address or email from the notice]. Re: Notice dated [date]. Head of household: [name]. Voucher or client number: [number].

I request an [informal hearing / informal review] on the decision to [terminate my family's Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher assistance / deny my application] stated in the notice above. I disagree because [one or two sentences, such as: I reported the new job on (date), and the receipt is attached].

Before the hearing, please let me examine and copy every document you will rely on, including my tenant file and any criminal record.

[If it applies: Because of a disability, I request this reasonable accommodation: (more time / an in-person hearing / reconsideration of the decision).] [If it applies: I am protected by VAWA, and form HUD-5382 is attached.]

Please send the hearing date, time and place to [mailing address, phone, email]. My representative is [name and phone, if any].

[Signature] [Printed name] [Date]

Today

1. Send the hearing request before the deadline and keep the dated copy.
2. Ask for your file and start gathering proof.
3. Call legal aid with your notice in hand.

What comes back: a notice with the hearing date, time and place, then the hearing officer's written decision.