An Overview Of Public Housing
Affordable rental units or apartments that are owned by the state and are eligible to the low-income families, elderly, or people with a disability comes under public housing. It’s a nationwide program overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and all types and sizes of houses are available, from a single-family house to a high-rise apartment.
Am I eligible for public housing?
- Your local Public Housing Agency (PHA) determines if you are eligible for the public housing program.
- Eligibility is based on the country’s citizenship or your immigration status, your gross annual income, your age, any disability, and other factors.
How do I apply for public housing?
- Either you or your PHA representative needs to provide a written application on your behalf.
Is there a verification process for public housing?
- Once the written application is submitted with all the relevant information, a verification process takes place.
- A PHA official will visit you in your home to determine how you manage to keep the current home.
- While in your home, the PHA official will interview you and your family members as a formal inspection
- Once all the information is gathered, the PHA official will explain the public housing program, its requirements, and answer your questions.
- During the verification process, the representative will ask for the documents like the birth certificate and tax returns to double check the information.
- The official might also talk to your employer, banker, and other references in the process.
- You will also be asked to sign a form that authorizes the release of information to the PHA.
How do I check my application status?
- Your local PHA will send a written notification regarding the application status.
- If you are eligible for the public housing, your name will be put on the waitlist.
- PHA will contact when you are allocated a public housing.
What else do I need to know about public housing?
- If you need any particular or specific information regarding the public housing program or need any assistance in the process, contact your local PHA representative.
- Know that the waiting period for public housing is pretty long, as the demand for the low-income rental is more than that of houses available.
- The PHA may close the waitlist if there are more families than the rentals available.
Where do I go to register a complaint?
- If a housing provider acts in a way to restrict someone from renting or buying a home based on the race, religion, sex, national origin, family status, or disability, its called housing discrimination.
- To complaint against such cases, you can fill a complaint form and submit it at the HUD.
- Housing discrimination is prohibited under the Fair Housing Act.
- It covers issues from raising prices to lying about the availability and many other such forms.
These are the basic overview that one needs to know when looking into low-income apartments. There are a lot of small steps and processes that need to be looked into when applying for a low-income apartment.