Instructions
1. Residency Preference: for families who live, work or have been hired to work in the jurisdiction. In order to verify that an applicant is a resident, the PHA will require a minimum of one of the following documents: rent receipts, leases, utility bills, employer or agency records, school records, drivers licenses, voters registration records, credit reports, statement from household with whom the family is residing.
For families who have been hired to work in the jurisdiction of the PHA, a statement from the employer will be required.
2. Singles Preference: All families with children, elderly families and disabled families will have an admission preference over “Other Singles”. Single applicants who are elderly, disabled, homeless, or displaced will be given a selection priority over all “other single” applicants regardless of preference status. “Other Singles” denotes a one-person household in which the individual member is not elderly, disabled, homeless or displaced by a formally recognized disaster or by government action. Such applicants will be placed on the waiting list in accordance with any other preferences to which they are entitled, but they cannot be selected for tenancy before any one-person elderly, disabled, homeless or displaced family regardless of local preferences.
3. Subsidized Housing Preference: Families not living in subsidized housing will be given an admission preference over families living in subsidized housing.
4. HCV Rescinded: Families who have been issued a Housing Choice Voucher and then had it rescinded due to insufficient HUD funding.
5. Victims of Domestic Violence: The PHA will offer a preference to families that include victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking who has either been referred by a partnering service agency or consortia or who is seeking an emergency transfer under VAWA from the PHA’s housing choice voucher program or other covered housing program operated by the PHA. The PHA will work with Women are Safe as a partnering service agency.
The applicant must certify that the abuser will not reside with the applicant unless the PHA gives prior written approval.
To qualify for this preference:
- Actual or threatened physical violence directed against the applicant or the applicant’s family by a spouse or other household member who lives in the unit with the family must have occurred within the past 6 months or be of a continuing nature.
- The family must have been displaced as a result of fleeing violence in the home or they are currently living in a situation where they are being subjected to or victimized by violence in the home.
The PHA will require written verification from the police, a social service agency, the court, a clergyperson, a physician and/or a public or private facility giving shelter and/or counseling to victims. The documentation must verify that the family has been displaced as a result of fleeing violence in the home or they are currently living in a situation where they are being subjected to or victimized by violence in the home, and identify when the actual or threatened physical violence against the applicant last occurred.
The family must certify that the abuser will not return to the household without the advance written approval of the PHA.
6. Involuntary Displacement Preference:
Involuntarily displaced applicants are applicants who have been involuntarily displaced and are not living in standard, permanent replacement housing, or will be involuntarily displaced within no more than six (6) months from the date of the verification by the PHA.
Families are considered to be involuntarily displaced if they are required to vacate housing as a result of one of the following situations.
A. A disaster (fire, flood, earthquake, etc.) that has caused the unit to be uninhabitable.
B. Federal, state of local government action related to code enforcement, public improvement or development.
Verification will be required by:
Written verification by the displacing or declaring unit or agency of government, or by a service agency such as the Red Cross.
Certification by landlord.
SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES
Local preferences will be aggregated using the following system:
Each preference will receive an allocation of points. The more preference points an applicant has, the higher the applicant’s place on the waiting list. Preferences apply to all lists except the Dickson Housing Authority Fund.
Preferences Points
Residency Preference 3000
HCV Rescinded 600
Domestic Violence 200
Involuntarily Displaced 200
Other Single -300
Subsidized Housing -100
FACTORS OTHER THAN PREFERENCE THAT AFFECT SELECTION OF APPLICANTS
Before applying its preference system, the PHA will first match the characteristics of the available unit to the applicants available on the waiting lists. Factors such as unit size, accessible features, de-concentration or income mixing, income targeting, or units in housing designated for the elderly limit the admission of families to those characteristics that match the characteristics and features of the vacant unit available.
By matching unit and family characteristics, it is possible that families who are lower on the waiting list may receive an offer of housing ahead of families with an earlier date and time of application.