PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has dismissed a woman’s claims of discriminatory housing practices by the Shamokin Housing Authority (SHA).
A Sept. 29 letter from HUD to SHA executive director Ronald Miller says no evidence was found to support the claim filed by Brenda Everett, of Shamokin.
The letter says Everett has options that include asking HUD for reconsideration or filing a lawsuit. She had already done the latter.
Everett filed a lawsuit in June 2013 in U.S. District Court against the authority and Miller after SHA withheld subsidies for the apartment in which she lived with her two disabled daughters. She was a participant in the voucher program through the Harrisburg Housing Authority (HHA), but said she moved from Harrisburg because of criminal activity near her home.
The Harrisburg authority helped Everett transfer the voucher to Shamokin, which issued a voucher to her Aug. 24, 2012. That same day, Everett made a request for SHA to inspect her apartment. She said that did not occur.
Two weeks later, SHA sent a letter to Everett saying the agency was revoking the subsidy based on a report from the U.S. Postal Service that her adult son, Khaalid Muhammad, was living with her. Simultaneously, SHA issued a notice to Everett’s adult daughter, saying her subsidy was also ending for the same reason.
Everett said in the complaint that for months prior and at that time, Muhammad was renting from the same landlord, Junior Fairweather, but at a different Shamokin apartment.
Everett had a grievance meeting with Miller Oct. 9, 2012, and SHA sent a letter confirming that the information provided by the post office on Khaalid Muhammad’s residence was erroneous. However, the subsidy was not reinstated, according to court documents.
In November 2013, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. Blewitt dismissed most of the claims in the lawsuit, leaving only one — that her due process rights under the 14th Amendment were violated.
In a memorandum explaining the decision, Blewitt said the court found Everett failed to show any irreparable harm since she has been in Shamokin. She was able to pay her landlord unsubsidized rent for her residence for more than a year, he said.
Blewitt also wrote that Everett failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of her claims, and that the court has adequate remedies at law if she succeeds in her case, receiving money damages for her unsubsidized rental payments she has been making since she moved to Shamokin in October 2012.
Miller was removed from the case because he was sued only in his official capacity, not as an individual. Blewitt said the claims against Miller and SHA are redundant and removed Miller from the suit.
On Sept. 5, the judge allowed Everett to submit an affidavit from Cheryl Hawk, housing choice voucher program director for the Harrisburg Housing Authority.
Blewitt wrote in his ruling that the affidavit should be allowed to clarify the underlying facts in the case and to assist the court in understanding the practice of “porting,” transferring a voucher from one authority to another.
Blewitt also denied motions on both sides for summary judgment in the case, allowing the due process denial claim to continue.
In addition to HUD dismissing Everett’s claims, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission had dismissed a unlawful discrimination claim in June 2013 “because the facts of the case do not establish that probable cause exists to credit the allegations.”