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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/31/23
    First Name: Denise
    Last Name: Craft
    Email: dcraft@tmamgroup.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: TM Associates Management, Inc.

  • Comment

    The biggest challenge our residents face is affordability. Our communities do not always have 100% of its units subsidized, often times making the minimum rent unaffordable. Finding ways to fund more rental assistance would enable our more rural communities to serve more low-income households.
    Removing Rental Assistance at our USDA Rural Development communities also discourages management from developing programs to assist residents in becoming gainfully employed or a higher wage earner. If a current resident's income increases to a level they no longer qualify for rental assistance for 6 months or longer, RD Specialists reassign the rental assistance to another community. This does not give the current resident enough time to save for a down payment on a home, which is essentially the goal. But when they do move to their new home in a year or two, the community now does not have rental assistance to offer to the next very low income applicant. In the long term, this practice actually creates challenges for our affordable communities to be financially successful through the term of the mortgage. More stringent criteria needs to be established for when rental assistance is removed from a community. Just being unused for 6 months doesn't clearly detail why it was unused and if for good reason.
    Also, not having full rental assistance available creates the need for the landlord to evict residents for non-payment of rent. The household may experience a reduction in income unexpectedly, then cannot afford the rent at an affordable community. Where would they find housing they can afford if they do not have rental assistance available to them. In many cases, this causes the household to become homeless.
    A big challenge our residents face is providing the documentation that details their income and assets. This enables us to calculate their rent. Making the EIV System available to other affordable housing programs would enable the staff at the community to gather the information on income quickly. The changes in HOTMA will assist considerably on the asset verifications.