LA tenants sue the city’s Housing Authority for termination of affordable housing vouchers

Los Angeles tenants and housing rights organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), the largest public housing authority in the nation, which, among other things, administers affordable housing and rental assistance programs for low-income, homeless and disabled residents.

The lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) and the Law Office of Autumn Elliott alleged that HACLA wrongfully terminated Section 8 vouchers without fair warning, representing a pattern of due process violations that put families at risk of eviction and homelessness. 

Section 8 housing, officially the Housing Choice Voucher Program, is a federal program that provides rental assistance for low-income families across the United States. Eligibility is based on income limits and family size set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and it is administered by local public housing authorities like HACLA. 

Essentially, under Section 8, participants pay about 30–40% of their adjusted monthly income towards rent. The vouchers cover the rest, allowing families to afford decent housing and providing access to safe, sanitary and affordable housing options for families who may otherwise face homelessness.

Before HACLA terminates a voucher, it must provide fair notice and the option for a hearing to protect tenants from unfairly losing their housing assistance. Today’s lawsuit claims HACLA wrongfully terminated Section 8 vouchers for two plaintiffs, Latrice Cannon and Gwenita Simpson. 

“Section 8 is a lifeline for many people and it's sometimes their last line of protection against homelessness,” Jincy Varughese, a housing attorney with LAFLA, told CALÓ News. “That is why there are certain constitutional protections around that ensure that tenants who are in Section 8 have a fair hearing and are given fair notice before their benefits are canceled.”

Simpson, a low-income grandmother who participated in the Section 8 program in 2023, said she went into debt to be able to afford her rent after her voucher was terminated.

“Since they took my voucher, I’ve had to go into debt to pay my rent and bills,” she said. 

In 2023, HACLA notified her that her Section 8 was under review due to an alleged failure to provide the documentation required for the annual income review. The notice also contained a handwritten list of three categories of documents for her to submit to avoid potential termination of her voucher. 

After submitting, Ms. Simpson continued to receive threats of termination, so she requested a hearing. Instead, just weeks later, HACLA terminated her voucher. 

 “I did everything I was supposed to do, and no one would listen to me,” Simpson said. “No one should be treated like that.” 

Cannon is a low-income mother who has received and relied on Section 8 for over twenty years. In February 2025, Ms. Cannon received a Notice of Intended Action and Right to Hearing, which stated that HACLA would terminate Ms. Cannon’s Section 8 benefits due to an alleged failure to provide documentation required for annual income review.

She submitted her documents promptly in response to HACLA’s request, but shortly afterward, on March 31, 2025, and without proper notice, HACLA terminated her voucher. 

As a result, Ms. Cannon received an eviction notice demanding the rent that had previously been covered by her voucher.  “I was panicking about losing my home. I did all I could to work with them, but it was like they didn’t care at all,” Cannon said. “I thought, ‘If they took my voucher so freely and haphazardly, who else are they doing this to?’” 

Varughese said that, despite the lawsuit only listing Cannon and Simpson as plaintiffs, the fight for justice is not just for them, but for many other low-income individuals who have been unfairly treated by the housing authority.  

“We're asking for our client's benefits to be restored, but most importantly, we're asking the court to order HACLA to follow the law going forward so that no one else's housing benefits are taken away without fair warning and without the proper process being followed,” she said. 

Approximately 60,000 families in the City of L.A. receive Section 8 assistance, many of whom are Latino. When it comes to the L.A. County, Latinos make up the largest portion of households that receive Section 8 vouchers, as stated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development statistics. 

“When people lose their Section 8 benefits, it has so many impacts, not just on those families and those individuals, but on their whole communities,” Varughese said. “Protecting those benefits is also fighting against housing insecurity and making sure that L.A. continues to be affordable for everyone.”

Section 8 benefits in the city of L.A. have been paused since March of this year, when HACLA announced that due to significant funding reductions, it would pause processing housing applications and voucher issuance. 

Today, no new applications are being processed. Still, Varughese said those already granted Section 8 benefits before the pause should be entitled to the same benefits and protections. 

 “There are certain constitutional protections around that that ensure that tenants who are in the Section 8 program have a fair hearing and are given fair notice before their benefits are canceled. We want to make sure that protections are still in place,” she said.