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Sometimes you must transfer a household to another unit to comply with fair housing law. Or a household may ask to move to another unit for personal reasons, such as a better view. But transferring households at tax credit sites can be tricky, especially at sites with more than one building. To avoid making inconsistent decisions, and to avoid any noncompliance traps or discrimination complaints that those inconsistencies might cause, include a provision covering unit transfers in your house rules.
Sometimes a household's income rises above tax credit program limits. When this happens, you have to comply with an IRS rule known as the “next available unit” (NAU) rule. But many managers fail to comply with this key rule. And that can have costly consequences. If the appropriate NAU isn't rented to a qualified, low-income household, the IRS may take back credits that the owner has already claimed and bar the owner from taking credits in the future.
Occasionally a household member will tell you that she has no income in order to reduce the household's total income and qualify it for the unit. Or a tax credit household that's also subject to Section 8 subsidies may claim that the entire household has no income so as to reduce the portion of the rent that the household must pay. “Dealing with zero-income families is one of the most common complaints of managers of affordable housing projects, especially those with rental assistance,” says tax credit consultant A.J. Johnson.
Some of your residents may be affected by layoffs and persisting unemployment. These residents may be eager to break their lease if they can no longer afford the rent. But under a written lease, residents are responsible for the entire term of the lease provided that there are no legal reasons to break the lease. Unemployment isn't a reason for breaking the lease with no repercussions.
According to HUD's latest report on U.S. Rental Housing Characteristics, vacancies in assisted rental housing are much lower than the national average. Fewer units are affordable to low-income renters. In fact, according to the 2011 Housing and Homelessness policy statement distributed by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, low-income renters have faced the tightest market for affordable housing since 1985.
Over the past two years, balancing operating budgets has become more of a juggling act for site owners and managers at low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) sites. And the recent recession coupled with the loss of jobs among residents have not helped. As the cost of doing business increases, a majority of site owners and managers find themselves taking a slice out of one cost area to make up for the lack of funds in another or trying to come up with other ways to save money.
Two years ago, the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency notified some 90,000 families associated with its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program that their personal information might have been compromised when a laptop was stolen from an OHFA employee's home. The computer contained names, Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, dates of birth, and home and business addresses of the clients who participate or have participated in the HCV program.
When new tax credit households move into your site, you can help them to start out on the right foot by ensuring that they have a clear understanding of their obligations for adhering to lease provisions and the house rules for your site. The orientation meeting sets the tone for the relationship that you will have with your residents.
The slow economic recovery and high unemployment rates have created a surge in full-time enrollment among vocational schools and community colleges across the United States, according to research from the American Association of Community Colleges and the National Center for Education Statistics.
Drug-related and criminal activity has long been associated with low-income housing in the public mind. While drug dealing also takes place in conventional housing sites, most drug dealers and gangs target low-income developments to push their drugs to an already fragile population, say crime prevention specialists Chuck Desrosiers and Moses Saygbe. They point out that there are several factors that make certain housing sites more attractive to criminals:
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