By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT– A local man who has become a whistleblower for conditions at the Marion Phillips Senior Apartments on Broad Street may be “a busy body,” wrote District Court Judge John Yazinski, but the Claremont Housing Authority failed to follow the rules in their latest attempt to evict him.
Yazinski ruled that CHA failed to follow HUD rules to provide tenant Craig Avery with a formal hearing before going to the court to evict him. In the ruling, Yazinski noted that Avery “files numerous complaints with management,” and wrote, “There is no doubt his behavior can be deemed annoying.” However, the court ruled that the housing authority failed to comply with its own lease terms and federal law in its efforts to evict him.
Avery has run afoul of the housing authority in the past, once after reporting an infestation of bedbugs and another time after circulating a petition to allow tenants to pay their rent in cash. On the other side, Executive Director Michelle Aiken and CHA attorney Lisa Wellman-Avery accuse Avery of pestering other tenants and getting in conflicts.
However, the action Aiken took to evict Craig Avery didn’t follow HUD procedures or CHA’s own lease. The lease, which follows HUD guidelines and federal law, states that a tenant faced with eviction will have a formal hearing with an independent hearing officer — someone agreed upon by the housing authority and the tenant. Avery declined a meeting with Aiken and another employee of Marion Phillips, which they offered in lieu of a formal hearing. According to the court documents, Aiken then told Avery he would get a formal hearing before a judge.
CHA took the case before Judge Yazinski, who patiently heard testimony from both sides on three separate occasions between January and March 20. Yazinski rendered his judgement March 20, allowing Avery to continue to live in Marion Phillips Apartments, as he has for the last 26 years.
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