§ 4-66Establishment of hearing with Housing Authority management.
§ 4-67Establishment of grievance panel hearing.
§ 4-68Proceedings prior to a grievance panel hearing.
§ 4-69Conduct of hearings.
§ 4-70Decisions of grievance panel.
Reasons for hearing with management. A hearing shall be established to afford an applicant an opportunity for a fair hearing if he/she disputes within a reasonable time any Housing Authority action or failure to act in accordance with or involving interpretation or application of the Housing Authority's regulations, policies or procedures which adversely affect the applicant's rights, duties, welfare or status.
Who is the hearing officer? The hearing shall be before one person from Housing Authority management. This member of management cannot be one whose duties and responsibilities involve him/her in any way with the grievance at issue.
Answer to applicant's grievance. An answer in writing to each complaint, dated and signed by the hearing officer, shall be delivered or mailed to the complainant within 10 days, specifying the disposition of the complaint and the reason therefor.
Reasons for grievance panel hearing. An impartial grievance panel hearing shall be established to afford a tenant an opportunity for a fair hearing if he/she disputes, within a reasonable time, any Housing Authority action or failure to act in accordance with the lease requirements, or any Housing Authority action or failure to act involving interpretation or application of the Housing Authority's regulations, policies or procedures which adversely affect the tenant's rights, duties, welfare or status.
Who are the members of the grievance panel hearing? The hearing panel shall consist of five members, one selected in alphabetical order from the tenant membership of the Board of Tenant Affairs and one selected from the Mayor-appointed membership of the Board of Tenant Affairs, both who serve on a rotating basis for each day or evening hearing; two appointed by the Housing Authority; and one impartial and disinterested member who shall be selected from a pool of grievance panel members from separate agencies or organizations in the Woonsocket area and who has been approved jointly by the Board of Tenant Affairs and the Housing Authority.
Restrictions on who may be a hearing panel member.
Restriction on who may be a chairperson. The impartial or disinterested member of the hearing panel shall be the chairperson of the hearing or hearings. The impartial or disinterested member of the panel may not be an officer or an employee of the Housing Authority or an employee of the City of Woonsocket.
Restriction on other hearing panel members. There shall be no relative of the complainant on the panel which hears his/her complaint, nor shall any Housing Authority officer or employee whose duties and responsibilities involve him/her in any way with the grievance at issue sit as a member of the hearing panel for that particular meeting.
Secretary to the hearing panel. The Secretary to the grievance panel will be an elected officer from the Tenant Board of Affairs in accordance with the bylaws of the Tenant Board of Affairs.
Tenant grievances.
Complaint must be presented in writing to project officer. A grievance panel hearing request must be personally presented in writing and signed by the complainant to the Housing Authority officer of the project in which the complainant resides. Said grievance or complaint must be filed within 10 days of the Housing Authority action or failure to act which is the basis for the grievance and must specify: i) the particular grounds upon which it is based; and ii) the action requested.
Complaint is over amount of rent. If the complaint is over the amount of rent which the Housing Authority claims is due, the complainant shall deposit in the Housing Authority Tenant Escrow Account, the amount needed to bring the tenant current with the full rental amount due and payable on the first of the month preceding the month of the Housing Authority's act on which the tenant seeks a grievance hearing, and shall thereafter deposit the same amount of the monthly rent in the Housing Authority Tenant Escrow Account when due, pending settlement of the dispute or the completion of all grievance panel procedures, including the time allotted the Housing Authority to appeal a decision of the grievance panel (§ 4-70B). If the complainant fails to do so by the time allowed to petition for hearings, or fails to continue to pay the escrow rent when due until completion of all grievance panel procedures, the grievance panel shall determine that the complainant has waived his/her right to a grievance panel hearing. Such determination shall not constitute a waiver of the complainant's right to thereafter contest the Housing Authority's disposition of his/her grievance in an appropriate judicial proceeding. The Executive Director may waive the requirement of an escrow deposit in extenuating circumstances.
Failure to petition for a grievance panel hearing within time frame. If the applicant fails to petition for a hearing within 10 days, without good cause, he/she will be held to have waived his/her right to such hearing, and the proposed Housing Authority disposition of the complaint shall be binding. Such determination shall not constitute a waiver of the complainant's right to thereafter contest the local Housing Authority's disposition of his/her grievance in an appropriate judicial proceeding.
Notice and scheduling. Upon receipt of the tenant's notice of request for a hearing before the grievance panel, the Executive Director shall: i) set a date for the grievance panel hearing; and ii) inform the tenant in writing of the date, time, and place of the grievance panel hearing; and iii) shall also notify the Secretary of the Board of Tenants' Affairs in writing of the date, time, and place of the grievance panel hearing.
Entitled to counsel. All tenants, as well as the Housing Authority, may be represented by counsel or other person chosen as a representative at the hearing.
Private hearings. The grievance panel hearing shall be private unless the complainant requests a public hearing and the grievance panel agrees.
Regulations and evidence. The complainant may examine, before the hearing and at his/her expense, copies of all documents, records, and regulations of the Housing Authority that are relevant to the hearing. Any documents in the possession of the Housing Authority which are not made available after request therefor by the complainant may not be relied on by the Housing Authority or the project management at the hearing. The complainant may request in advance, at his/her expense, a transcript of any hearings.
Cancellation of grievance panel hearings. If the complainant or the Housing Authority fails to notify the Secretary of the grievance panel, in writing, of a request to postpone the grievance panel hearing within 24 hours of the scheduled hearing, the grievance panel may make a determination to postpone the hearing for not to exceed five business days or may make a determination that the party has waived his/her rights to the grievance panel hearing. Both the complainant and the Housing Authority shall be notified of the determination by the Hearing Panel.
Burden of proof. At the grievance panel hearing and in all cases except evictions, the complainant must make a prima facie case, and then the burden of proof is on the Housing Authority to justify the action or inaction proposed by it in its answer to the complaint. In cases dealing with evictions, the burden of proof is on the Housing Authority to justify the proposed eviction. The complainant may present evidence and arguments in support of his/her complaint; controvert evidence relied on by the Housing Authority; and confront and cross-examine all witnesses on whose testimony or information the Housing Authority relies.
All parties to take oath. All parties testifying at grievance panel hearings shall take an oath to tell the truth. Such oath is to be administered by the Chairperson of the grievance panel hearing.
Evidence and conduct.
The hearing shall be conducted informally by the hearing panel and oral or documentary evidence pertinent to the facts and issues raised by the complaint may be received without regard to admissibility under the rules of evidence applicable to judicial proceedings. The hearing panel shall require the WHA, the complainant, counsel and other participants or spectators to conduct themselves in an orderly fashion. Failure to comply with the directions of the hearing panel to obtain order may result in exclusion from the proceedings or in a decision adverse to the interests of the disorderly party and granting or denial of the relief sought, as appropriate.
Accommodation of persons with disabilities.
The WHA must provide reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities to participate in the hearing. Reasonable accommodation may include qualified sign language interpreters, readers, accessible locations, or attendants.
If the tenant is visually impaired, any notice to the tenant which is required must be in an accessible format.
Communication of decision. The grievance panel shall prepare its written decision, including a statement of findings and conclusions as well as the reasons or basis therefor, upon all material issues raised by the parties. This shall be done within seven days after the date of the hearing. Copies therefor shall be mailed or delivered to the parties and/or their representatives. The decision of the hearing panel shall be based solely and exclusively upon facts presented at the hearing, upon Rhode Island law, the Federal Minimum Housing Act of 1937, HUD regulations, and applicable Housing Authority rules and regulations.
Decision in favor of tenant. If the decision of the hearing panel is in favor of the complainant, the Housing Authority shall promptly take all action necessary to carry out such decision or refrain from any action prohibited by such decision unless the Executive Director for the Housing Authority determines and notifies the complainant and the Board of Tenant Affairs in writing within 10 days that the hearing panel has acted arbitrarily or exceeded its authority. The notice to the complainant shall specify that the Executive Director will ask that the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority pass a resolution at the next regularly scheduled meeting; the resolution would state that the hearing panel has acted arbitrarily or exceeded its authority. Such notice shall also indicate the time and date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners of the Housing Authority must notify the complainant in writing within five days of its decision that the resolution passed or failed. If the Board of Commissioners passed such a resolution, the Housing Authority may commence an action to regain possession of the premises pursuant to Article 10 of the lease and thereby incur the burden of proving that the contested decision was arbitrary and capricious. In such judicial proceedings, the Housing Authority shall be limited to invoking against the complainant the grounds originally relied on by the Housing Authority in its proposed disposition of the complaint.
Decision in favor of Housing Authority. If the decision of the grievance panel is in favor of the Housing Authority, an action to regain possession may not be commenced until after the tenant's right to use and/or occupy the premises has been terminated pursuant to the notice provisions of the lease. Such notice to vacate may not be given prior to the date on which the grievance panel's decision upholding the proposed eviction is delivered or mailed to the tenant.
Judicial proceeding. A decision by the hearing panel or Board of Commissioners in favor of the WHA or which denies the relief requested by the complainant in whole or in part shall not constitute a waiver of, nor affect in any manner whatever, any rights the complainant may have to a trial de novo or judicial review in any judicial proceedings which may thereafter be brought in the matter.
