Federal Law Doesn’t Require Evicting D.C. Subsidized Housing Residents for Pleading Guilty to Possessing Unregistered Guns
From today’s decision by Judge Corinne Beckwith, joined by Judges Anna Blackburne-Rigsby and Joshua Deahl, in Hattix v. D.C. Housing Authority:
Desean Hattix was convicted of attempted failure to register a firearm after police executed a search warrant at his home and recovered, among other things, two unregistered handguns. Following his conviction, the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) sued Mr. Hattix to evict him from his federally subsidized housing unit.
DCHA alleged that Mr. Hattix’s possession of an unregistered firearm violated the federal “one-strike” provision in his lease, which prohibits tenants from engaging in “[c]riminal activity that threatens the residents’ health, safety or right to peaceful enjoyment of the [property].” … [We agree with Mr. Hattix] (1) that possession of an unregistered firearm does not constitute a per se threat to residents’ health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the property, and (2) that DCHA did not present sufficient evidence that Mr. Hattix’s conduct posed a threat to residents’ health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the property….
In January 2018, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) executed a search warrant at the federally subsidized housing unit where Mr. Hattix lived in Southwest D.C. MPD officers seized several items, including “two handguns, each with ammunition, a spent round of ammunition, a plastic bag containing drug paraphernalia and mail matter in [Mr. Hattix’s] name.” The firearms were not registered, and Mr. Hattix was not licensed to possess a firearm in the District. Mr. Hattix [pleaded guilty to] two counts of possessing an unregistered firearm and two counts of possessing unregistered ammunition. He subsequently pleaded guilty to attempted possession of an unregistered firearm.
Following his conviction, DCHA served Mr. Hattix with a notice to vacate his home, inf
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