Williams v. Housing Authority

282 S.E.2d 141, 158 Ga. App. 734, 1981 Ga. App. LEXIS 2395
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMay 13, 1981
Docket61496
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 282 S.E.2d 141 (Williams v. Housing Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Housing Authority, 282 S.E.2d 141, 158 Ga. App. 734, 1981 Ga. App. LEXIS 2395 (Ga. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

Birdsong, Judge.

Dispossessory warrant. The appellant Ms. Williams is a tenant of the Housing Authority of Columbus, Ga., appellee herein. Ms. Williams is the single mother of five children and a grandchild living in a non-federally, non-state financially-supported housing project owned and operated by the Housing Authority. Her only income is from Aid for Dependent Children; i.e., welfare. The Housing Authority operated two sections of the public housing in which Ms. Williams lives. One is HUD-subsidized and is subject to federal and state controls. The other is non-subsidized and is run by the Housing Authority, fully supported by the rentals received. Ms. Williams lived in the unsubsidized portion of the development. The Housing Authority established by competent evidence that the manager of the development received a report that Ms. Williams gave a party for her 17-year-old sister, held in Ms. Williams’ apartment. The party was attended by a large number of people, ranging in age from subteens to adult age. Alcoholic beverages were available to all, including beer and whiskey. During the continuance of the party, the housing security forces apprehended some teenagers at a location in the housing area very near Ms. Williams’ party. A large number of people (200 or more) including a substantial group of the party attendees gathered around the apprehending officers and additional officers were called as back-up. One or more of the young adults who had been at Ms. Williams’ party were arrested for causing a near-riot and interfering with the arresting officers. A man seen at Ms. Williams’ party was also arrested as the one allegedly inciting the near-riot. The next day the manager had a conference with Ms. Williams and informed her that because of the combined factors of the availability of alcoholic beverages to minors, the near-riot in which a number of her guests participated and the arrest of several of the young adults as well as one man at her apartment who allegedly incited the incident, and because of unidentified past problems the management had had with Ms. Williams, the manager was then giving Ms. Williams a notice of eviction. She was given 30 days’ notice and when she did not vacate the apartment, the Housing Authority brought dispossessory proceedings against Ms. Williams as a tenant holding over. Ms. Williams answered the complaint, denying any misconduct and asserting that because her landlord was a publicly owned housing project, she could not be deprived of the right to the use of low-income housing without a hearing, and that she could only be dispossessed following a showing of cause for removal. The Housing [735]*735Authority moved the court for summary judgment which was granted. Ms. Williams brings this appeal arguing that she was denied due process of law by being dispossessed without the Housing Authority showing cause or without granting her a hearing to refute any cause that the Housing Authority might allege. Held:

In substance, Ms. Williams argues that her entitlement to continued possession of an apartment in a public housing authority, once established, is a vested interest and is an interest that can be terminated only in accord with due process of law guaranteed to her by the Fourteenth Amendment, which is after due notice and following a hearing in which good cause is shown. Her argument continues that because the Housing Authority is created pursuant to state law and is designed to promote better, safer housing for indigent citizens, the Authority is a part of the state and all its actions are subject to due process evaluations and protections.

The lease in question in pertinent part provides the lease shall be automatically renewed for successive terms of one month each at a specified rental. The management (Housing Authority) may terminate the lease at any time by giving the tenant at least thirty (30) days prior notice in writing. The lease also provides that the written document evidences the entire agreement between the Authority and Ms. Williams. There were no other agreements alleged or proven.

We are aware of no state statutes granting to occupants of low income public housing a vested interest in continued occupancy, nor do we perceive that any inalienable rights attach outside the rights created by the lease agreements entered into between the landlord and the tenant. Nor has appellant Ms. Williams cited to us such a statute.

In Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U. S. 56 (92 SC 862, 31 LE2d 36), the Supreme Court held at p. 47 (LE2d): “... The Constitution has not federalized the substantive law of landlord-tenant relations, however, and we see nothing to forbid [Georgia] from treating the undertakings of the tenant and those of the landlord as independent rather than dependent covenants. . . .”

At p. 50 (LE2d), it was said: “Appellants argue, however, that a more stringent standard than mere rationality should be applied both to the challenged classification and its stated purpose. They contend that the ‘need for decent shelter’ and the ‘right to retain peaceful possession of one’s home’ are fundamental interests which are particularly important to the poor and which may be trenched upon only after the State demonstrates some superior interest. . . .

“We do not denigrate the importance of decent, safe, and sanitary housing. But the Constitution does not provide judicial [736]*736remedies for every social and economic ill. We are unable to perceive in that document any constitutional guarantee of access to dwellings of a particular quality, or any recognition of the right of a tenant to occupy the real property of his landlord beyond the term of his lease without the payment of rent or otherwise contrary to the terms of the relevant agreement. Absent constitutional mandate, the assurance of adequate housing and the definition of landlord-tenant relationships are legislative, not judicial, functions. Nor should we forget that the Constitution expressly protects against confiscation of private property or the income therefrom.”

In Flamm v. Real-Blt, Inc., d/b/a Ponderosa Acres, 424 U. S. 1313 (96 SC 941, 47 LE2d 77), an application for a stay of a Montana Supreme Court judgment was denied in the absence of a necessary concurrence by justices of that court to grant certiorari because of the express provision in the lease in that case wherein either party could terminate the lease simply by giving the requisite written notice called for in the lease, the landlord having complied with the notice requirement. The housing involved in that case was subsidized housing and the tenant had urged that she was entitled to a showing of good cause and a hearing before the lease could be terminated or before she could be evicted.

“Property interests, of course, are not created by the Constitution. Rather, they are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law — rules or understandings that secure certain benefits and that support claims of entitlement to those benefits.” Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U. S. 564, 577 (92 SC 2701, 33 LE2d 548, 561). “The United States Constitution cannot feasibly be construed to require federal judicial review for every [public agency] error.

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Bluebook (online)
282 S.E.2d 141, 158 Ga. App. 734, 1981 Ga. App. LEXIS 2395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-housing-authority-gactapp-1981.