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Each year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the city to adopt changes to its Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy which governs the city’s Conventional Public Housing program and its Housing Choice Voucher Administrative Plan which governs the city’s Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) programs. The plan changes to be effective July 1, 2021 include a significant number of changes that make the program easier to navigate for applicants and participants, and easier to administer for program staff. Both plans can be found on the city’s website at www.glendaleaz.com/publichousing. Below is a summary of the major changes. Summary of Changes • Concise language regarding an applicant or participant’s right to request reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford people with disabilities an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling or a program. • Enhanced outreach and communications designed to reach and serve a diverse population of low-income persons, with special attention paid to outreach for people with disabilities, elderly individuals, persons with limited English proficiency (LEP), or underserved populations. • The opening of housing waiting lists will be advertised for a minimum of 30 days before the opening date, and pre-applications will be accepted for a minimum of 21 days. • All pre-applications taken during the 21-day period will be entered into a randomized lottery drawn to establish the waiting list. • Pre-applications will be accepted via phone, online, mail, email, fax, and in-person. • During the pre-application period, a manned phone line will be available during normal business hours for applicants who wish to request an application, have questions, or need to request a reasonable accommodation. • Pre-application, full application, public notice and reasonable accommodation/modification request documents will be translated into multiple languages. COMMUNITY SERVICES MEMORANDUM Page 1 of 2 Date: April 13, 2021 From: Jean Moreno, Director, Community Services Subject: 2021 Housing Administrative Plan Improvements Page 2 of 2 • Clarified that any adult member of a household may apply for benefits on behalf of the household and only one person in the household, regardless of age, must be a U.S. citizen or a qualified immigrant to be eligible for the program. Adults that do not claim program eligibility will not be asked about their immigration status or whether they have a Social Security Number. • Allows guests to remain in the assisted unit no longer than a total of 30 days in any 12-month period if allowed under the terms of the lease agreement or if provided with written permission from the landlord. There are no restrictions for visiting children. • The criminal history look-back period for new applicants and participants will be 24 months for violent criminal activity or other criminal activity that threatens the health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other residents; and 12 months for drug-related criminal activity. • Clarified that GHA will not consider arrest records at all in making any housing- related decisions such as admissions, terminations, or evictions – only criminal conviction records are applicable. • Except for criminal convictions where denial, termination, or eviction are required, GHA will consider relevant circumstances when making housing-related decisions. • Expanded definition of homelessness as it relates to qualifying for preference points. • Families are not required to report increases in income throughout the year but, may request an interim re-examination if they have experienced a decrease in income. Families are still required to report changes in income during the annual recertification process. • GHA will utilize the HUD approved process to streamline an interim re-examination when a family member is added and will not complete a full redetermination of income. Changes in family composition must be reported to GHA within 30 days of the change. A family will not receive approval to add a family member(s) if it causes an HQS violation for over-crowding. • Families with net assets equal to or less than $5,000 can utilize a self-declaration process for those assets and GHA will only require third-party verification of those declared assets every three years. • Families whose income is made up of at least 90% from fixed income sources, can utilize a streamlined annual re-examination process for income evaluation and GHA will only conduct a full verification of all income every three years. • Clarified that a family that is proceeding to a hearing may request the opportunity to view their entire GHA file and obtain copies of any materials they would like to use at the hearing at GHA’s expense.