Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

In replying to my previous question regarding a petition for a writ of administrative mandate, I'm a few steps ahead of where you are curious about the details. I had my only administrative appeal provided by the agency by means of an Informal Hearing where I had no legal representation and boy was that a mistake. The hearing was conducted basically placing all the burden on me to defend myself against allegations. I say allegations for there was absolutely zero corroborating physical evidence (although in the hearing officers written report he repeats their testimony as facts and evidence) they brought in someone who would classify as an accomplice whose testimony was uncorroborated, I even objected to her for the information she gave had no source to how it was obtained and she also involved a period of time which was not mentioned would be involved at discovery. My caseworker with the agency who was central for she is the only person I dealt with in 4 years was "out sick" that day and the two agency staff were commenting about letters in my file which they had no idea of the actual context of the notes, the actual physical evidence I submitted which contradicted the testimony made against me such as statements, receipts, a letter stating a gift given to me, and certain notes and reports I submitted which were in my file with the agency, were not even mentioned in the Hearing Officer's written report (which seems as a purposeful way to keep it out of any court review) But the kicker is in the Hearing Officer's written Findings in which he states I had made income because I had returned merchandise to the store. Mind you this is merchandise bought and paid for with my own money, money that at the time of the purchase had already been reported as resulting from employment income and that income was already calculated into the subsidy amount from the agency and I was now getting my money back! How is that seen as income? It goes onto say that clothing I had been given as a gift (1 time at x-mas 1 year; 1 time from a friend who was moving out of state, and another from a gift from an exboyfriend) that when I took those clothes back to the store and got a refund for those items in cash, that this must be reported as income. All fine and dandy except when both federal regulation and they agencies own policy states sporadic, nonrecurring gifts (less than 3 times in 12 months) even if the gift is cash, is not considered income! Of course the hearing officer does not site the regulation he is relying on. But wait, he goes on to say that I failed to satisfactorily explain, document, or report these returns saying that i merely submitted bank statements to the agency so I violated a program rule and was the reason to terminate my participation. However, not only did I submit bank statements I submitted photocopies of the receipts to those returns made at the store either from my own purchases or the gifts and with those photocopies was a note explaining what it stemmed from; I did this for 3 years! My caseworker approved it then! Only in the last time I met with her she told me if I return any more gifts I must report it as income (she was wrong in fact because it would at most be only considered an asset) however even though she was incorrect, two months after I was told this I returned a gift and I reported it AS INCOME on an income and expense report along with a photocopy explanation and note which also states "since you told me in may 2011 that must now report any future gift returns as income I did on July 20, 2011!

The last statement the hearing officer goes onto to say "it appears" you were making income from those returns and failed to report it as required. IT APPEARS?! Really, and on just what does "it appear"?! Remember the others only made allegations which included more personal opinions and character attacks and not one actual document to support their claims. Oh and one of the investigators mentioned that they had taped an investigation they conducted at my home (I never was told of) but when it was brought up at the informal hearing I asked for the tape to be play for I know there is proof I did not say what this investigator reported that I said; that went ignored too. Now as for the Hearing Officer being in a hurry to just end it and submit his report, spot on! He was able to submit it to the agency before closing that same day and the hearing ended with only a little over an hour left before closing time. It is full of incomprehensible sentences, grammatical mistakes, spelling errors and typos. On the date that is set to be when the termination was to occur, instead of January 15, 2012 he writes January 15, 2010! 2 years off!

I have standing!

I tried nicely to write to the director only to get a response saying they reviewed everything from my hearing on Nov 4, 2011 (except my informal hearing was on Dec 20, 2011) an blah blah blah standard issue rejection letter; but even they are not diligent enough in getting the dates correct!

My problem is in case you haven't figured it out, this results in my losing rental assistance provided by the section 8 voucher program. The legal aid society as well as the public law center do not have any attorneys providing assistance to subsized housing recipients since it's not considered an entitlement as well. To add insult to injury, administrative lawyers either work for the government or are not about to take on a case with a client who is essentially broke at the moment and draw up all the paperwork required in a writ petition on contingency when at best all that may be awarded is attorney fees! Yet I was truly wronged and was stripped from assistance provided by a program which although is not an entitlement, I did qualify for and most importantly I ALWAYS FOLLOWED ALL THE RULES! It would be nice if the agency would, but they are not and I unfortunately am at a point where I need this corrected asap! It's almost like they timed it knowing I was down to the last reserves of any type of money to get by on while still searching for a new job, to then kick me to the curb on what appears by the agency employee's staff notes in my file is an unspoken policy that if the tenant reports zero income for 1 year regardless if they report to be surviving on emergency savings they had set aside over the years working, that they automatically submit a request for an investigation for possible fraud! I don't care about making a stink about civil rights violations or whining that it's bias against the poor; I just did not do anything to have been terminated from the program and there is no other way to make them notice or reconsider except Superior Court filed by a girl who has no training or education in law!

Please feel free to chime in on how screwed I am...but if you could help...

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