Skip to main content
DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

§ 42-3505

Citation
§ 42-3505
Parent Document
Pratt v. District of Columbia Housing Authority, 942 A.2d 656 (2008)
Jurisdiction
DC (municipal)
Effective Date
2008-02-21

Full Text

901 chars
of appellant’s lease, the sole ground on which her eviction was sought before the jury, was silent as to the prohibition of criminal activity. Thus, evicting her for Davon Pratt’s criminal activity without first giving her an opportunity to cure cannot be said to “enforee[her] contractual duty, expressed ini the lease, to prevent such activity by any family member.” Public Housing Lease and Grievance Procedures, 56 Fed.Reg. at 51,567. The pre-emption of local law worked by a lease provision embodying the federal one-strike policy does not, we conclude, displace a tenant’s right to an opportunity to cure violation of a lease paragraph which does not specifically mention criminal activity. It is doubtless true, as DCHA implied at oral argument, that appellant’s lease “fell through the cracks” of the Authority’s endeavor to amend all public housing leases to conform to the federal command, 4