Section 8

Citation: Section 8
Parent Document: Park Village Apartment Tenants Ass'n v. Mortimer Howard Trust, 636 F.3d 1150 (2011)
Jurisdiction: United States (federal)
Effective Date: 2011-02-25
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/205533/park-village-apartment-tenants-a... ↗

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On the record before us, it is entirely speculative for the Dissent to conclude that Defendants are likely to violate “HUD’s housing quality standards” in the absence of adequate economic incentives to do so. The Dissent “assume[s] that Defendants are not trying to commit economic suicide,” and further assumes that Defendants will only be able to stay in business if they drastically reduce the services and housing standards provided to Plaintiffs. Dissent at 1165. These assumptions wholly lack evidentiary support, and rest on the untenable premise that Defendants are willing to risk the imposition of significant penalties under state law by providing substandard housing conditions. See Cal. Civ.Code § 1942.4(b)-(c) (requiring landlords who violate housing standards to abate the harmful conditions and pay actual damages, statutory damages, attorney’s fees). We disagree with the Dissent that these results are likely, and that, even if these results were likely, the proper remedy would be to compel Defendants to enter HAP contracts with the Oakland Housing Authority. Instead, if the Dissent were correct (which we believe he is not) that the statutory “right to remain” requires landlords to provide certain housing conditions, the appropriate remedy would be to order landlords to provide those housing conditions, not to require them to enter into HAP contracts with local housing authorities. Thus, even under the Dissent’s construction of the statute, the district court’s injunction is not properly tailored to remedy the speculative harms discussed by the Dissent.

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