COURT: GREEN BAY WOMAN WRONGLY DENIED RENT AID

Guest's Actions Not Relevant, Appeals Panel Finds

MADISON - A Green Bay woman should not have been denied low-income
housing because police caught a guest in her home smoking marijuana
shortly before she applied for the aid, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

Only household members' conduct can be considered in applications for
the federal rent subsidies program that issues housing vouchers for
poor people, the 4th District Court of Appeals said in overturning a
Brown County judge's ruling.

According to court records, Beverly A. Williams applied for the aid
through the Brown County Housing Authority. Integrated Community
Services, which administered the program, denied her application
because a member of her household had been involved in drug-related activity.

The decision was based on a police report that said officers arrested
a man smoking marijuana at Williams' home four months earlier. There
was no evidence Williams participated in any criminal activity or was
aware of it, court records said.

Integrated Services said it didn't matter that the man was a guest
because Williams was responsible for the conduct of people in her home.

She sued in May 2005, and Circuit Judge John McKay upheld the
decision a year ago.

In overturning McKay on Thursday, the three-judge appeals court said
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations for
screening applicants call for scrutiny of household members only.
Once people are in the program, they can be removed because of the
conduct of guests and "other persons under the tenant's control," the
judges said.

Integrated Services did not have the authority to deny Williams'
application for rent aid because of a pot-smoking guest, the panel concluded.