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I am in the process of sending a series of documents to the Reside Marketing Agency for an appeal.
On 11/12/2020, I was supplied with an H-4: Rejection Notice. Reside determined that I did not provide enough proof in my initial application for us to meet the definition of a household based on their marketing handbook. However, their marketing handbook does not define a disabled household.
I submitted documentation requesting a reasonable accommodation as a disabled family and proceeded to send over the HPD Administrative Plan which does define a disabled household as, “or one or more such persons living with another person who is determined by HUD, based upon a licensed physician's certificate provided by the family, to be essential to their care or well-being,” along with a licensed physician’s certificate which states that a live-in caregiver is essential to my well-being.
For reference: I receive SSD payments as a disabled person and have been disabled since 2001. I am applying as a 2-person household with CB. The people on the application are myself and my fiancé, who is also my live-in caregiver. However, I am not mobility/ vision/ or hearing disabled. The purpose of me furnishing Reside with the information regarding my disability was to help them determine household composition. HPD does consider a "disabled household" to be a "household"
On 11/16/2020 I received an H-7: Appeal Rejection Notice. I asked if I could send follow-up information because aside from being medically interdependent, we are also financially interdependent.
Reside responded by stating: “I’ve inquired with HPD and didn’t receive a response. Per the marketing handbook your application doesn’t meet the interdependency guidelines. I’ve therefore sent you a H-7 appeal rejection letter so you can appeal directly with HPD. Protocol doesn’t require me to hold an apartment after and H7 rejection letter has been sent.”
This is concerning to me because it is my understanding that the marketing agency is required to hold an apartment for the applicant for 5-business days after receiving an initial rejection notice to give the applicant time to acquire documents to submit for an appeal. If this is true, it would mean that I have until 11/19/20 to submit all of my documentation before forfeiting my rights to the apartment. However, when I called Reside on the phone today, they said that they are not sure if they still have an apartment for me and that by tomorrow they might give the apartment to someone else.
Aside from not being afforded the 5-business day appeal that I thought was guaranteed to all applicants, I also feel it is disconcerting to be deemed ineligible without a determination from HPD in general, but especially before my window for appeal has closed.
Tomorrow I will also be acquiring additional documentation. My fiance and I are going to go ahead and open up a shared checking account to prove financial interdependence and we will send it over right away. Do you think that would make us eligible? We completely are financially interdependent, but I guess opening up a shared bank account is the only way of proving it because I am the only one listed on our current lease and utilities?
Thank you for taking the time to read this everyone. This has been an incredibly painful, humiliating process. Especially because I feel so desperate right now. My sister is going through treatment for a recently discovered lymphoma and having the financial relief of landing a housing lottery apartment would make it so that I could be wayyy more helpful to her.
Wishing everyone the best during these uncertain times!
Contact HPD ASAP, asking them to tell Reside to hold the apartment while your complaint is resolved, but also reach out to your city councilperson's constituent services person.
Also write back to the agency pointing out p. 27 of the marketing handbook:
"The appeal rejection notice will contain information for the applicant on how to contact the appropriate Agency (HPD or HDC) if the applicant has a complaint. See Attachment H-7. 2. If the applicant’s complaint concerns the rejection of their appeal, the applicant must submit their complaint to the Agency within five business days of the appeal rejection notice’s postmark or sent date to initiate a review. Such a complaint must include a written explanation of why the applicant believes the appeal was rejected in error and documentation to support the explanation. 3. The Agency may require that the Marketing Agent hold a unit depending on the circumstances of the case and if units are available."
Protocol requires them to defer to HPD as to whether to hold the unit for you while your complaint is resolved. The goal is to keep them from making a fait accompli of your denial by giving the apartment to someone else while you work with HPD. I don't know what the right ruling is, as the HPD Administrative Plan applies to vouchers and the "living together for provision of medical care" is only mentioned as qualifying for "Extended Family Members" in the handbook, but "I asked HPD and they didn't get back to me in two-three days, so you lose" isn't the right procedure.
Once you've had the interview, however, it's too late to change your household composition without "extenuating circumstances." So if you didn't qualify before, creating a joint checking account now won't do it. It can't hurt, though, I guess. Along with sending along every other bill of any kind, tax return, government record, paystub showing him to be at the same address.
If you qualify on your own for the apartment (size/income), I would consider asking if you can be considered on your own. (I don't know how they handle it if they determine that two people don't qualify as a household--whether they are just rejected out of hand or one of them is allowed to qualify on their own if possible.) If you can (again, don't know how they handle that), your fiance wouldn't be on the lease then but they would have to accommodate your need for a live-in caregiver. Once married, I believe he could get on the lease.
I have to say, and I'm not trying to be mean, because I feel bad for you and truly hope you prevail here, but I trust there is some sensible reason you haven't simply regularized your situation, because this was all avoidable. You absolutely qualify according to the spirit of the law as a household (and IMO any person with a medically documented need for a live-in caregiver should be treated as needing an extra bedroom, even if that's not the law), but you've arranged your life in a way that unfortunately may well disqualify you. Before you apply for another apartment, marry your fiance, or at least have him start paying some of the utilities!
Contact HPD ASAP, asking them to tell Reside to hold the apartment while your complaint is resolved, but also reach out to your city councilperson's constituent services person.
Also write back to the agency pointing out p. 27 of the marketing handbook:
"The appeal rejection notice will contain information for the applicant on how to contact the appropriate Agency (HPD or HDC) if the applicant has a complaint. See Attachment H-7. 2. If the applicant’s complaint concerns the rejection of their appeal, the applicant must submit their complaint to the Agency within five business days of the appeal rejection notice’s postmark or sent date to initiate a review. Such a complaint must include a written explanation of why the applicant believes the appeal was rejected in error and documentation to support the explanation. 3. The Agency may require that the Marketing Agent hold a unit depending on the circumstances of the case and if units are available."
Protocol requires them to defer to HPD as to whether to hold the unit for you while your complaint is resolved. The goal is to keep them from making a fait accompli of your denial by giving the apartment to someone else while you work with HPD. I don't know what the right ruling is, as the HPD Administrative Plan applies to vouchers and the "living together for provision of medical care" is only mentioned as qualifying for "Extended Family Members" in the handbook, but "I asked HPD and they didn't get back to me in two-three days, so you lose" isn't the right procedure.
Once you've had the interview, however, it's too late to change your household composition without "extenuating circumstances." So if you didn't qualify before, creating a joint checking account now won't do it. It can't hurt, though, I guess. Along with sending along every other bill of any kind, tax return, government record, paystub showing him to be at the same address.
If you qualify on your own for the apartment (size/income), I would consider asking if you can be considered on your own. (I don't know how they handle it if they determine that two people don't qualify as a household--whether they are just rejected out of hand or one of them is allowed to qualify on their own if possible.) If you can (again, don't know how they handle that), your fiance wouldn't be on the lease then but they would have to accommodate your need for a live-in caregiver. Once married, I believe he could get on the lease.
I have to say, and I'm not trying to be mean, because I feel bad for you and truly hope you prevail here, but I trust there is some sensible reason you haven't simply regularized your situation, because this was all avoidable. You absolutely qualify according to the spirit of the law as a household (and IMO any person with a medically documented need for a live-in caregiver should be treated as needing an extra bedroom, even if that's not the law), but you've arranged your life in a way that unfortunately may well disqualify you. Before you apply for another apartment, marry your fiance, or at least have him start paying some of the utilities!
Thank you so so much for this incredibly thoughtful and thorough response! I am beyond grateful for your insight.
In regards to my housing composition, I applied as a 2-person household, and I do not have enough income to qualify on my own. Because I'm only trying to prove financial interdependence (and am not trying to change my household size) do you think it's too late to make a joint checking account? Meaning, they won't accept it as proof of financial interdependence because I didn't open this account sooner?
You are absolutely right that I should have regularized my situation. This absolutely was avoidable and I made a huge mistake not adding him onto the lease or utility bills sooner. I just am the person who handles all the paperwork and he does a lot of different responsibilities around our home that I am not capable of doing. It was our way of splitting up the tasks so we each had our own specific things we were responsible for. But, I can see now that I was very wrong to not have added him to the lease and utility accounts so it is formally documented that we live together.
Since it costs you very little to open a joint checking account besides time, I see no harm in trying it. But if they are being very strict, since financial interdependence is what makes a household, establishing it after the interview is changing you from a single person to a two-person household. Now, a lot of them are not very good at their jobs and also you have a sympathetic story, so I say try it (unless there's some compelling reason you haven't done it before). But technically I don't think it helps.
Yes, but OP apparently isn't (from their POV) a two-person household right now because not financially interdependent at the time of interview. In other words, at the time of interview, OP was a one-person household. To join a two-person household by now becoming financially interdependent--by their standards--would be a change after the interview. That's how I read it, anyway. (It seems counterintuitive because from any reasonable POV, all OP is doing is better documenting the existing situation. But they are defining the reality by the existence of certain narrow specified documents which are not adequate to capture the financial interdependence here.)
But, as I said, cost is minimal to set up a joint checking account, so I'd do it anyway, just in case it helps. You only get so many shots at a lottery apartment, and I always encourage people with reasonable cases to pursue all legitimate avenues.
^^^ You always give excellent and helpful advice! I would just say to get married ASAP, but I know there's some reason that's not possible (at least, that's what I thought I read in a previous post).
Often when you're on disability, marriage can have all kinds of crazy unforeseen implications. E.g., I think Medicaid will pay for a FAMILY MEMBER to be a caregiver under certain circumstances, but not a SPOUSE. (???)
Also, very weirdly, getting married is not listed as an extenuating circumstance for a household change after interview, though divorce is. I'd still make that argument if it was just a question of timing (engaged but living separately before, planning to move in together on marriage), but if there are other reasons not to be married it'd be unfortunate to go through the process and then find out it hadn't made any difference, so I didn't want to suggest that in this exact moment.
Hey! Thank you all so much for the feedback! So to clarify, I applied as a 2 person household, maintained that I am applying as a 2 person household throughout my correspondence with Reside, and am only financially eligible as a 2 person household.
I opened a joint savings account today and emailed it over. I contacted Reside after sending over the bank statement and they said they are all leased up for 80% AMI units (the bracket I am eligible for) and do not have a unit for me.
This is all so sketchy, because I do believe they did very recently have a unit for me. On 11/12/20, they left me a voicemail to schedule an appointment to come see a unit. I called them back and they followed up by saying, "Oops. Actually, you're not eligible." And then they sent me a rejection notice. They did the same the following day on 11/13/20. (They called, left me a voicemail to schedule an appointment to come see a unit. I called them back and they followed up by saying, "Oops. Actually, you're not eligible.") And then this time they sent me a second rejection notice.
I am in the middle of an appeal for an 80% AMI unit and from what I understand, they are required to hold a unit during the 5-business day appeal window. I feel so crushed. I believe they skipped my log number and went ahead and leased out the unit to someone else before I was able to finish my appeal.
I reached out to HPD and my city councilperson's constituent services person. Neither of them have responded but it seems too late already.
If it's important to you, keep pushing, at least til you've talked to HPD and your councilperson. If they've screwed up enough, sometimes, very occasionally, things seem to get "fixed" on the back end. A long shot, to be sure, but benefits well outweigh the cost.
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