Does a tenant have a right to a prior notice and hearing to claim entitlement to a disability benefit?

The tenants have a right to prior notice and hearing only if they have 'a legitimate claim of entitlement' to the governmentally conferred benefit. (Board of Regents v. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701.) The search for a definition of entitlement is elusive because the concept has only recently emerged and in its present formative stage its features are not fully discernible. To say that interests are entitlements only if they are property interests (see id.) is not a useful definitional tool because the term 'property' embraces multiple concepts that have differing consequences depending upon the kind of 'property' involved and the setting in

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Although comprehensive definition of the entitlement concept is not yet possible, the contexts in which prior notice and hearing have or have not been required provide guidance in determining the kinds of interests that are entitlements. An interest that gives rise to an entitlement is always a conditional interest, ² but not all conditional interests in governmental benefits give rise to entitlements. To create an entitlement, the law must remove the decision to grant the benefit from agency discretion. (See, e.g., Arnett v. Kennedy (1974) 416 U.S. 134, 181-182, 94 S.Ct. 1633, 40 L.Ed.2d 15 (op'n of White, J.) (government employment terminable at will of government not subject to prior notice and hearing).)