About this blog site

Thanks for visiting our site. Citizens for Fair Treatment of Applicants to Tax Credit Affordable Apartment Housing Properties has been created to assist residents in applying to affordable housing apartments. Our experiences have shown that while affordable housing helps thousands of persons to have housing, there are thousands more who are and may be treated unfairly in disregard to the HUD regulations and discrimination laws. Our primary focus is to assist applicants to become knowledgeable of HUD 4350 and what will be expected in the apartment interview process. To see California’s copy of the Compliance manual click here. Each state will have their own agency and compliance manual which should be consistent with federal regulations.

Our experiences thus far have been limited. That is why we appreciate everyone’s feedback. As former government officials, what little we have seen is that there is so little oversight and enforcement of the regulations that a pattern and practice of abuse is evident. For example, one source says that tax credit properties are “monitored” every three years and then only 20% of the units. Think of how much lack of compliance can go on in a three year period. The most glaring problem we found is that after seven months of research we have not found one local, state, or federal government agency that is responsible for taking complaints from applicants to affordable housing; thus there is no protection for those who are otherwise qualified but denied housing. The housing properties do not state in the interview, “If you have a complaint, please contact so-and-so agency.” We think this is inherently unfair. Another example is that properties must exclude about 16 types of income; if you are an applicant, knowing these facts can mean the difference between whether you get an apartment and how much rent you will pay. For example, “temporary, non-recurring, or sporadic income” must be excluded. If you worked overtime but on a non-regular, sporadic basis, it must be excluded. But we have seen property owners/monitors like Thomas Safran Associates (Los Angeles) and Urban Futures (Orange County) refuse to make the exclusions, and we believe they do so because they know there is no government oversight. The US Congress set these programs up this way. Also, HUD says, housing authorities must set their

own

definition of what is “sporadic income.” What if all agencies have a different definition and one agency decides all people with funny noses will have their overtime included, or maybe all Blacks will be excluded because their overtime is too high, or all Hispanics will not have their income levels questioned. Seems to us the government’s lack of oversight has caused abuse of process and discrimination to flourish. If you feel your income and your assets qualified you, but you were rejected, we want to know about it. We have made our views known to various Congress persons, numerous California state officials including attorney general Jerry Brown, the Governor; and local mayors and councils. It is shocking that many of them seem indifferent, but of course, it must be admitted that some politicians undoubtedly have investments in these properties so it would not be in their best interest to complain. We don’t accept that as an excuse of course for them not to take action.

Finally, yes, we want you , and encourage you, to seek housing at these properties that are all across the country. Take your families, take your friends, take your grandparents. Be forewarned there will be a lot of paperwork. These are not the low income housing “projects” of the old days. Many of the properties are brand new and feature amenities found in condo luxury type settings like dishwasher, gym, community room, etc. We spoke generally that while these apartments may be valued at $1600, you could pay rent of $800 per month; actually your rent could be $400 because it is based on your income. Each year the income limits possibly go up. If you make under $35,000 and depending on the part of the country, you may qualify. There is even a provision that your income can rise by 140% of the median (you can get a raise) and you will still keep your apartment.

Hope to hear from you!