Recent
Announcements
| RHS POSTPONES IMPLEMENTATION OF RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT
IN SECTION 515 RURAL RENTAL HOUSING
The Rural Housing Service (RHS) has delayed implementation of those portions of its new Section 515 multi-family housing regulations that impose
citizenship or residency requirement on heads of households residing in
Section 515 housing. The decision was announced in
a Federal Register notice on
February 22, 2005, two days before the new regulations go
into effect. The implementation postponement of the residency requirement
means that Section 515 landlords may not ask residents of, or applicants to, RHS Section 515 housing about their residency status and may not take
any adverse action against residents who are not citizens or legally admitted permanent residents.
The RHS action comes in response a request by the National Housing Law Project (NHLP) that it rescind
or postpone the residency requirement of the regulations because, as they
were published on November 24, 2004, they did not conform to Section 214 of
the Housing and Community Development Amendments of 1980. 24 U.S.C. §1436.
That section prohibits RHS from providing Rental Assistance to persons who
are not citizens or certain legally admitted permanent residents. In
instances where households are composed of citizens or legal residents and
others, the statute requires RHS to prorate the assistance provided to the
household based on the number of eligible persons living in the household.
As published, the RHS regulations did not restrict the residency
requirement to persons that are receiving Rental Assistance. Instead, they
prohibited any household whose head was not a citizen or a legally admitted
permanent resident from residing in any Section 515 housing. In essence, they would have required Section 515 landlords to evict households from all
RHS financed housing whenever the head of the household was not a citizen or legally admitted permanent resident.
It is expected that RHS will publish new regulations in the future
that conform to Section 214. However, at this time it is not clear when such regulations will be published.
Housing advocates are urged to distribute information about the delay of the residency requirement as widely as possible because it is not clear that RHS landlords will be advised of the change before they begin
tenant recertifications or review new tenant applications under the new
regulations.
It is also not clear at this time exactly how the delay will affect
applicants to Section 514 or 516 farmlabor housing. The Section 514 and
516 programs have a separate residency requirement that has been enforced
for many years. Arguably, Section 214 expands eligibility for the programs
to a broader group of residents and lifts any residency restrictions with
respect to household that are not receiving Rental Assistance subsidies.
Because, however, residency in farmlabor housing has been restricted to
citizens and permanent residents, the new regulations would not have caused
anyone to be evicted from farmlabor housing. Whether the delay in
implementation affects the eligibility of others to reside in farmlabor
housing is not yet known.
For additional information about this development, you may contact
Gideon Anders at the National Housing Law Project, e-mail: ganders@nhlp.org.
Update Posted: February 22, 2005
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