Public housing was established to provide safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types to apartment communities. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administers Federal aid to local housing agencies (HAs) that manage the housing for low-income residents at rents they can afford. HUD furnishes technical and professional assistance in planning, developing and managing these developments.
Who Is Eligible?
Public housing is limited to low-income families and individuals. CHD determines your eligibility based on:
1) annual gross income;
2) whether you qualify as elderly, a person with a disability, or as a family;
3) U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status. If you are eligible, the HA will check your references to make sure you and your family will be good tenants. The CHD will deny admission to any applicant whose habits and practices may be expected to have a detrimental effect on other tenants or on the project's environment.
CHA uses Income Limits developed by HUD. HUD sets the lower income limits at 80% and very low income limits at 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan area in which you choose to live. Income Limits vary from area to area so you may be eligible at CHA but not at another HA.
How is Rent Determined?
Your rent, which is referred to as the Total Tenant Payment (TTP) in this program, would be based on your family's anticipated gross annual income less deductions, if any. HUD regulations allow HAs to exclude from annual income the following allowances: $480 for each dependent; $400 for any elderly family, or a person with a disability; and some medical deductions for families headed by an elderly person or a person with disabilities. Based on your application, the CHA representative will determine if any of the allowable deductions should be subtracted from your annual income. Annual income is the anticipated total income from all sources received from the family head and spouse, and each additional member of the family 18 years of age or older.
The formula used in determining the TTP is the highest of the following, rounded to the nearest dollar:
(1) 30 percent of the monthly adjusted income. (Monthly Adjusted Income is annual income less deductions allowed by the regulations);
(2) 10 percent of monthly income;
(3) welfare rent, if applicable; or
(4) a $50 minimum rent is Concord Housing Policy
Upfront Income Verification (UIV)
HUD estimates that the total income and rent errors attributable to tenant under reporting of income was $364 million in FY 2008, a decline of 63 percent from the FY 2000 baseline of $978 million. UIV is a key strategy in reducing these errors and has been proven to increase accuracy and efficiency in determining family eligibility and computing income and rent calculations. The EIV System (a UIV tool) has already proven to be instrumental in reducing income and rent determination errors and improper payments due to unreported and under reported family household income.
UIV is the verification of income, before or during a family reexamination, through an independent source that systematically and uniformly maintains income information in computerized form for a large number of individuals. PHAs should put forth a conscience effort to ensure that they use all available resources, including UIV techniques to obtain verification of tenant-reported (unreported or under reported) income.
Effective January 31, 2010, HUD now requires PHAs to use HUD's centralized Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) System to validate tenant reported income and inform tenants of the PHA's capability and intent to compare tenant reported information with UIV data. Read the Final Rule and issued Guidance.
PHAs should contact the EIV Coordinator at their local HUD field office for further information on obtaining access to the EIV system.
UIV Tools and Tips: Matching Tenant Reported Income
The Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) System is a HUD provided Internet-based tool that allows CHD to view employment information, wages, unemployment compensation and social security benefit information at any point in time. The system also compares PHA verified/tenant reported wages, unemployment compensation and social security benefit information reported on HUD form 50058 with the UIV-reported amounts for the same income sources to identify families that may have substantially under reported their household income.