Author: Stephen Goldberg

Shared housing in the Housing Choice Voucher program

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The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has issued guidance regarding use of Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) in shared housing.  Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) may allow shared housing.  PHAs must allow shared housing as a reasonable accommodation to allow the HCV program to be used by persons with disabilities.

Assisted families can share a unit with either HCV assisted persons or unassisted persons.  The owner of the property can reside in the unit but housing assistance cannot be paid on the owner’s behalf.  A resident owner cannot be related to the assisted family by blood or marriage except as a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability.  If approved by the PHA, a live-in aid may reside with the family to care for a person with disabilities.

The entire unit must meet Housing Quality Standards to be approved for shared housing.

The payment standard for a family in shared housing is the lower of the PHA’s payment standard for the family unit size or the pro-rata share of the PHA’s payment standard for the shared housing unit size.  The Housing Assistance Payment in shared housing is the lower of the payment standard minus the total tenant payment or the gross rent minus the total tenant payment.  The utility allowance for an assisted family in shared housing is the pro-rata share of the utility allowance for the shared housing unit.  (PIH Notice 2021-05, January 15, 2021.)

Elimination of periodic reporting for CalFresh Elderly Simplified Application Project households

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The Elderly Simplified Application Project (ESAP) is a federal waiver to allow elderly and disabled CalFresh households to waive recertification interviews, use data matching to reduce needed verifications, extend certification period for up to 36 months, and waive the requirement to contact the household every 12 months, which eliminates the need to send and collect SAR-7 reports.

These waivers apply to households where all members are either elderly (age 60 or older) or disabled with no earned income.  Households that include excluded or ineligible members who are also elderly or disabled are eligible for ESAP.

The California Department of Social Services has announced that the elimination of periodic reporting for ESAP households will be effective on March 1, 2022 through September 30, 2026.  ESAP households will no longer need to complete a periodic report at 12th and 24th months of their 36-month certification period.  ESAP households will still need to complete mandatory mid-period reporting, including gross income over the Income Reporting Threshold during the 36 month-certification period.  If an ESAP household submits a SAR 7 report due on or after March 1, 2022, the county must treat it as a voluntary mid-period report.

ESAP households will get a notice in early March, 2022 informing them that they will no longer need to submit SAR 7 reports to maintain their CalFresh eligibility.  Counties must continue to issue notices at the 12th and 24th months of the certification period to report income over the income reporting threshold. (ACL 22-15, February 10, 2022.)

COVID-19 updated information regarding submitting SOC 873

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The California Department of Social Services has provided information about completion of the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) SOC 873 form.

Counties can allow a good cause extension for failure to submit the IHSS SOC 873 form within 45 days of application when they were unable to do so because their health care provider was unavailable because of work related to COVID-19.  The option for that good cause extension is extended through the end of the COVID-19 state of emergency in California.  Counties can determine on a case-by-case basis when good cause exists. This evaluation should consider various factors including the applicant being in the hospital, the health care professional scheduling appointments more than 45 days out, the SOC 873 being lost in the mail, and the applicant’s primary health care provider being unavailable because of the Omicron variant.  (ACL 22-11, February 9, 2022.)

Public and subsidized housing extension to 30 days notice to pay rent or quit

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The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has issued guidance regarding of extension of time to pay rent in public and federally subsidized housing.  The interim final rule ““Extension of Time and Required Disclosures for Notification of Nonpayment of Rent” amended HUD regulations to require that, during a national emergency, the HUD Secretary can determine that additional time is necessary for families to secure funding available because of the national emergency and therefore public housing authorities (PHAs) administering public housing programs and owners of project based rental assistance properties must give at 30 days notice of lease termination for nonpayment of rent.  This requirement would not apply to the Housing Choice Voucher program.

The HUD Secretary has determined that an extension of time is necessary to give tenants notice of available funding and to increase the likelihood that tenants will be able to secure such funding before lease termination. This determination will remain in effect until a subsequent HUD notice rescinds this determination.

PHAs are not required to amend their leases to reflect this requirement.  Instead, PHAs must notify tenants of the requirement for 30 days notice of termination of tenancy for nonpayment of rent.  PHAs can provide this notice in writing or by electronic communication.  (PIH Notice 2021-29, October 7, 2021.)

Effect of SSI COLA on CalFresh benefits

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Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients received a Cost of Living Increase effective January 1, 2022.  The new SSI amount must be acted on for CalFresh purposes no later than March, 2022.  This will happen automatically for most CalFresh cases. Counties must manually process some cases, including cases that receive SSI amount that are more than the maximum monthly SSI payment (because of a retroactive SSI payment for example).  Supplemental Nutrition Benefits and Transitional Nutrition Benefit cases are not affected by the SSI COLA increase.

Note that retroactive SSI payments are excluded as income for CalFresh purposes.  January 2022 should include a higher than usual number of retroactive payments because of improper benefits reductions and denials caused by Social Security incorrectly counting pandemic benefits as income.  Any cases with amounts over the SSI maximum payment will be excluded from automatic processing to prevent improperly counting SSI retroactive payments.

As a reminder, amounts recouped from SSI benefits, including recoupment of SSI overpayments, do not count as income for CalFresh. (ACIN I-11-22, January 28, 2022.)

Stage One Child Care eligibility age

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Stage One child care is available to every CalWORKs participant with a dependent child in the household who is age 12 or younger.  Children who reach age 13 are generally ineligible for subsidized child care.  Children with exceptional needs or severe disabilities may receive child care through age 21.  Children who are under court supervision can receive Stage One Child Care to age 18.

Children who certified for child care prior to their thirteenth birthday may receive child care for 12 months.  Contractors cannot disenroll a child when they turn age thirteen during the 12-month eligibility period and must allow the child to continue in subsidized child care until the family’s next recertification.  Counties must give families a Notice of Action stating the duration of eligibility that includes an end date of eligibility which must be through the 12-month eligibility period.  (Child Care Bulletin 22-04, January 13, 2022.)