Louis v. New York City Housing Authority
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
152 F. Supp. 3d 143 (2016)
- Written by Alexander Hager-DeMyer, JD
Facts
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) (defendant) was a public-housing agency that administered the Section 8 tenant-based, housing-assistance program, among other duties. Under the Section 8 program, low-income families applied for rental assistance and received rental-payment vouchers. During the vouchers’ effective terms, each family was responsible for finding a unit to rent and submitting the choice to the NYCHA for approval. If the NYCHA approved, the agency set up rental-subsidy payments for the family with the rental-property owner. Mesline Louis (plaintiff) and her children qualified for rental assistance under the Section 8 program and received vouchers for several years. Louis and one of her children suffered from several disabling conditions that required the family to have monitoring equipment and ventilators at home. After being forcibly evicted from an apartment, Louis and her family were unable to find suitable housing for nearly four years. During that time, Louis repeatedly contacted the NYCHA for assistance in finding somewhere to live, but the NYCHA only provided Louis with subsidy vouchers. Louis sued the NYCHA for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide reasonable accommodations in the NYCHA’s administration of the Section 8 program. Louis claimed that the NYCHA failed to provide her with accessible housing and failed to assist her in finding such housing in any meaningful way. The NYCHA moved to dismiss the suit.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Buchwald, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
