Public housing is a housing tenure where the property is owned by a housing authority. These authorities could have received many funds in the past to build the housing structures and own them. In the past, the role of these authorities was simply to provide a subsidy to some private landlords. These landlords would then house the participants for the program. Even nowadays, the housing authorities continue building the structures. But they have set up separate ownership which involves private investors and hence would be receiving tax credits for providing equity. Public housing was built before the 1980s and there are many of these units which are still owned by the housing authorities. Most of them have been rehabilitated as the years passed by. Here, you would see how to apply for public housing. If you’re currently receiving rental assistance, you may qualify.
Applying for Public Housing
Get Application Form
The applications for public housing are usually available online. You could also get it by mail or at your office. When it comes to public housing, the application could be for a general waiting list or it could be tied to some scattered site or an apartment community. If you find trouble in completing the application process don’t worry, you could always take the help of a social worker who would do the job for you. Another thing to take care of while applying for public housing is that you don’t have to pay for it. It is against the HUD policy for the housing authorities to charge for the applications. Make sure that the application is a legitimate one. You could verify this by contacting the authority whose name is printed on the application.
The online applications would usually ask the person to create an account with a valid email ID. Make sure you keep the account information secure. One could always get the help of his/her family members or friends in case he/she does not have access to the internet or have some problems. Know that the email ID you provided while creating the account would be used to communicate with you. In case you are not getting updates anymore, it is highly possible that your name has been removed from the list.
Fill in the Application
The next step after you are done with creating an account with your email ID is to complete the application by filling in the form. It would ask you your general details like name, age, dob, the income of the entire family and few other things related to you. You will also have to fill in your housing history, active phone number, criminal history in case you have any and your preferences. Fill in these details according to the instructions given by the housing office. Make sure that you go through the form thoroughly, there would be some mandatory columns which must be filled in. By any chance, you have left those columns blank the form would be rejected right away.
Submit the Application
Done with filling in the details then you can move on to the next step, i.e. submitting the form. There would be some rules that you would come across here, some being like you shouldn’t be submitting the application offline. Don’t make any mistakes in following these rules. In some cases, it would be stated that if mailed your application would be rejected and you are supposed to submit it to the authority in person. Timings are very crucial when you apply for public housing. If it is mentioned that the applications have to be submitted by 6:00 pm, even a minute delay would make the things worse and your application would be rejected. The deadlines should be met without fail. This applies for the online applications as well. If a time is mentioned, the mail should be reached within that time without even a minute delay.
After you are done with the steps mentioned above, you would need to wait for the official to process the forms and then confirm the current status of your waiting list regularly. If you are considered you would be called for an interview. Finish the process and move into your offered space.