THA’s Housing Choice Voucher Program is not available to everyone. There are two main limitations. First, there are rules that define who is eligible and suitable. The federal government created the Housing Choice Voucher Program and pays for it. The federal government limits who can receive a voucher. In general, only very-low or low-income households are eligible. The government also allows THA to adopt its own additional rules that further affect who can get a voucher. These are called “local preferences”. THA chose preferences to make sure vouchers go first to families in the greatest need. Even with these limits, THA does not have enough vouchers for every eligible family. The need is too great and THA’s resources are too thin, that is the second main limitation. There are not nearly enough vouchers for all the households who need them. For this reason, THA accepts applications for a voucher only once in a while. Even then, thousands of people apply. THA must put them on a waiting list to wait their turn.

ELIGIBILITY
Eligibility means a family satisfies basic conditions to receive assistance. It does not mean that a family will receive a voucher. THA must also determine that the family is suitable. To make this judgment, THA checks for a criminal history of every adult member of the family.

The five basic eligibility requirements:

A household must qualify as a “family”,

Its income must be within certain limits,

Assisted members must be citizens or eligible immigrants,

Assisted members must document Social Security and immigration status and

They must sign required consents, releases and agreements.

Family Status
A household can qualify as a “family” in several of the following ways.
Please Note: Blood or marriage relationships are not necessary:

A family with or without children:

Such a family is defined as a group of people related by blood, marriage, adoption or affinity that lives together in a stable family relationship.


Children temporarily absent from the home due to placement in foster care are considered family members.



Unborn children and children in the process of being adopted are considered family members for purposes of determining bedroom size, but are not considered family members for determining income limit.

An elderly family:

A family whose head, spouse, or sole member is a person who is at least 62 years of age;


Two or more persons who are at least 62 years of age living together; or


One or more persons who are at least 62 years of age living with one or more live-in aides;

A near-elderly family:

A family whose head, spouse, or sole member is a person who is at least 50 years of age but below the age of 62;


Two or more persons who are at least 50 years of age but below the age of 62 living together; or


One or more persons who are at least 50 years of age but below the age of 62 living with one or more live-in aides.

A disabled family:

A family whose head, spouse, or sole member is a person with disabilities;


Two or more persons with disabilities living together; or


One or more persons with disabilities living with one or more live-inaides.

A displaced family:

A family in which each member, or whose sole member, has been displaced by governmental action, or whose dwelling has been extensively damaged or destroyed as a result of a disaster declared or otherwise formally recognized pursuant to Federal disaster relief laws.

A remaining member of a tenant family and:

A single person:

who is not an elderly or displaced person, or a person with disabilities, or the remaining member of a tenant family.

Income Eligibility
At the time the family initially receives assistance, it must have a “low” income. An income is low if it is at or below 80% of the Area Median Income for the household’s size. In addition to being “low income” the family must fit one of the following categories:

A very low-income family:

This means its income must be at or under 50% of the Areas Median Income for its size of family. Click here to find out what these income levels are.

A low-income family continuously assisted under the 1937 Housing Act: 

This means that the family is living in public housing or receiving assistance from the Voucher Program;

A low-income family that meets additional eligibility criteria specified by the Housing Authority;

A low-income family that is a non-purchasing tenant in a HOPE 1 or HOPE 2 project or a property subject to resident homeownership program under 24 CFR 248.173;

A low-income family or moderate-income family that is displaced as a result of the prepayment of a mortgage or the voluntary termination of an insurance contract on eligible low-income housing;

A low-income family that qualifies for voucher assistance as a non-purchasing family residing in a HOPE 1 (HOPE for public housing homeownership) or HOPE 2 (HOPE for homeownership of multifamily units) project.

Income limits apply only at admission. A family can increase its income and still remain on the Program. In fact, THA encourages families to increase their income. As incomes rise the assistance will decrease. When a family’s income rises high enough to reduce the assistance to zero, THA will place the voucher in a pending status for six months in case the family’s income goes down and again needs the voucher. If after 6 months the family does not need the voucher, THA will give it to another family.

Families who bring a voucher to Tacoma from another jurisdiction and have the status of applicant rather than of participant at their initial housing authority must meet the income limit for the area where they came from. Families who bring a voucher to Tacoma from another jurisdiction and are already program participants at their initial housing authority do not have to meet THA's income eligibility requirement. Income limit restrictions do not apply to families already on THA’s Voucher program but who are moving from one unit to another.

Citizenship/Eligible Immigrant status
Assisted members of the family must be U.S. citizens, nationals, or non-citizens with eligible immigration status under one of the categories set forth in Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980 [see 42 U.S.C. 1436a(a)].

Certain exceptions apply:

Despite the ineligibility of one or more family members, a family may be eligible for prorated assistance. This means that the total amount of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) will be divided by the total number of family members, then the result will be multiplied by the number of eligible participants. For instance, assume that the HAP is $600. If there are three people in the family and only two are eligible, the calculation would be as follows: $600 divided by 3 equals $200 times 2 equals $400


Proration of the housing assistance payment does not affect the rent paid to the owner. The family must pay the portion of rent to owner not covered by the prorated housing assistance payment.

Social Security Number Documentation
Family members do not need to have a social security number, but if they have one they must provide and document the correct number.

Signing Consent Forms
In order to be eligible each member of the family who is at least 18 years of age, and each family head and spouse regardless of age, shall sign one or more consent forms. These forms allow other people or organizations to share the family’s information with THA: These forms include:

Permission authorizing HUD and THA to obtain from State Wage Information Collection Agencies (SWICAs) any information or materials needed to complete or verify the application for participation or to determine eligibility for continued occupancy;



Permission authorizing HUD and THA to verify with past or current employers income information needed to determine eligibility or level of benefits;



Permission authorizing HUD and THA to request income information from the IRS and the SSA for the sole purpose of determining the family's eligibility or level of benefits; and



A statement that the authorization to release the information requested by the consent form expires 15 months after the date the consent form is signed.

SUITABILITY
Criminal Background Checks While the landlord has the responsibility to choose his or her tenants, THA also makes an effort to screen out people from the program who would not be good tenants or good neighbors. It does this by checking criminal backgrounds of all adults seeking to participate in the Program, including live-in aides. The Tacoma Police Department (TPD) or the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) conducts these checks for THA. They check the history from the jurisdictions where the applicant has previously lived. This includes both adult and juvenile records. Please Note: THA does not regularly recheck the criminal history of people once they join the Program.

The following crimes or criminal history will disqualify an applicant from the Program:

Drug-related criminal activity within one year, including possession, sale or use;


Violent criminal activity or;


Lifetime registration as a sex offender.

THA may deny or terminate assistance if the preponderance of evidence indicates that a family member has engaged in such activity, regardless of whether the family member has been arrested or convicted.

The landlord, however, is responsible for screening prospective tenants. Upon the request of a prospective landlord, THA will provide any factual information or third party written information it has relevant to a voucher holder’s history of, or ability to, comply with material standard lease terms or any history of drug trafficking.

PREFERENCE
HUD allows THA and all housing authorities to state preferences that give some groups of persons on the waiting list a priority for receiving vouchers.

These are THA's currently stated preferences:

In the aggregate for each year, eighty percent (80%) of all Vouchers that THA issues shall go to “extremely low-income” households. These are households “Annual Income” is at or below 30% of Area Median Income (AMI). Twenty percent (20%) shall go to “very low-income” households. These are households whose “Annual Income” is between 31% and 50% of AMI. THA shall monitor its issuance rates and adjust its issuances as necessary to satisfy this aggregate requirement.



THA does not have nearly enough vouchers for every eligible family. For this reason, THA usually has a very long waiting list of families waiting learn if they will receive one. THA has some rules that try to direct the vouchers first to those families on the waiting list that have the greatest need or that have other attributes THA seeks to encourage or reward. These “local preferences” are stated below. THA implements these preferences by assigning points. Those families on the waiting list with more points receive vouchers before those with fewer points. Persons with the same points shall receive vouchers in the chronological order of the date and time of their application.

First Group: 50 pts - Displaced by THA
Persons in need of housing upon their displacement by the demolition or rehabilitation of THA housing; provided that this preference shall not apply to persons to whom THA offers alternative replacement housing.

Second Group: 16 pts - Current Project Based Voucher Holders
Persons who, for more than 12 months in the same unit, have been using a Project Based Voucher governed by a Project Based HAP Contract with THA and who then terminate their tenancy and seek to move with a tenant-based Voucher.

Third Group: 10 pts - New Project Based Program Participants: Special Needs
Persons referred by a Housing Provider with whom THA has a Project-Based HAP Contract for a program serving special needs populations, or referred by THA for that program and who are willing to occupy a unit in the program using a Project Based Voucher. Special needs population includes: homeless persons, homeless persons in transitional housing, and disabled persons.

Fourth Group: 6 pts - New Project Based Program Participants: Regular Population
Persons referred by Housing Provider with whom THA has a Project-Based HAP Contract for a housing program or referred by THA for that program and who are willing to occupy a unit in the Program using a Project-Based Voucher.

Income Groups:
80% of vouchers issued yearly shall go to households < 30% AMI and 20% shall go to households 31%-50% AMI. THA shall monitor issuance rates and adjust as necessary. In general, THA shall not issue vouchers to households 51% - 80% AMI unless there are no applicants in lower income categories. It accomplishes this with the following assignment of points:
2 pts Households < 30% AMI;
1 pt Households 31% -50% AMI

Extra Points
THA shall assign extra points for the following:
2 Points: Displaced Persons suffering continued displacement from their homes because of:•

Governmental action;


Extensive damage or destruction of their home by fire, or by a federally declared disaster;


Status as a victim or domestic violence verified by a current protection order or other reliable source of information;


Status as a victim of hate crimes verified by police information;


Need to relocate because of their participation as a witness in a police investigation or a judicial proceeding.

1pt Disabled Household: A household that includes a disabled person. Disability shall be shown by the current receipt of income from Social Security Disability, Social Security Retirement, SSI or GAU.

General

THA has made or may make changes to its Voucher Program to comply with HUD PIH Notice 2004-07 (April 22, 2004) or similar funding directives. Persons may lose their Vouchers as a result, including those in the following circumstances:

THA may take back a voucher before the person can use it

THA may terminate a voucher in use and its HAP Contract. When this happens, THA will place the affected person back on the waiting list. THA may deviate from these preferences when necessary to place these persons at the top of the waiting list.

THA may deviate from these preferences when necessary to fulfill its obligation to reasonably accommodate the needs of a disabled tenant in THA housing.


THA may deviate from these preferences when necessary to permit the return of a former Salishan resident pursuant to THA’s Reoccupancy Plan for Salishan’s redevelop-ment provided that such former residents meet other eligibility requirements for the Voucher and the Project-Based unit.


THA reserves the authority to set-aside Housing Vouchers to house persons participating in approved programs serving the needs of targeted special needs populations, including homeless persons, persons who are chronically mentally ill, and the Housing Options Plan. The use of these Vouchers shall be governed by the operational plan and agreement with each provider.