'Hostile Housing Environment' Claim Against PHA

摘要

In a 7-0 decision handed down on July 8, the Ohio Supreme Court held that a landlord-in this instance the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority-may not be held liable for failing to take corrective action against a tenant whose racial harassment of another tenant created a hostile housing environment (Ohio Supreme Court Slip Opinion No. 2008-Ohio-3320). The case involved feuding neighbors in a housing authority development, but notably did not involve any allegation that the PHA's management or staff created the hostile environment through their own harassment of the tenant. The plaintiff in the case, Ohio Civil Rights Commission, had argued that the court should adopt a standard identical to that used in workplace harassment cases, a contention that the court explicitly rejected, noting that the principles of agency on which those cases are founded do not exist in the case of landlord and tenants. For more details, see www.nahro.org/members/monitor/2008/715.cfm#d.