“All of the proposed changes to these plans are designed to benefit our residents by making it easier to access services and information about our programs.””

Jean Moreno, Glendale Interim Community Services Director

By Mark Carlisle
Twitter: @mwcarlisle

To helps some of its residents in need of housing assistance, Glendale is allocating money toward a new public housing development and revamping its application process to make it more accessible and keep residents from getting bogged down on the waitlist for housing assistance.

New housing project

Helping Hands Housing Services, a subsidiary of UMOM, is building a 72-unit public housing apartment complex called Bethany Crossing near 69th Avenue and Bethany Home Road. Glendale is loaning $390,000 of federally allocated money for the $31.4 million project. The project is expected to break ground in late spring or early summer and is scheduled to finish by the end of July 2021.

The development will increase the city’s affordable housing capacity by nearly 50%, increasing the capacity from 155 units to 227. Bethany Crossing will be closely grouped with Glendale’s three existing public housing apartment complexes. All four are within about a two-block radius, just south of downtown Glendale.

Public housing allows low-income residents — making no more than 80% of the median area income — to pay 50-65% of the fair market rate for apartment rentals. Glendale also distributes more than 1,000 Housing Choice Vouchers, which allow qualifying residents to live in participating apartment complexes, paying rent based on a percentage of the resident’s income.

A Glendale staff report on the changes the city is making the to the public housing application process stated these forms of housing assistance exist to “provide rental assistance for low and very low-income families who may otherwise live in substandard housing or would be homeless.”

For current fiscal year, Glendale was allocated $670,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through a Home Investment Partnerships Program, or HOME, grant. Glendale is using more than half of that grant on the Bethany Crossing, allocating $390,000 to the project. That amount is a loan that Helping Hands will pay back over 20 years, with an annual interest rate of 6%.

Helping Hands is having nearly half of the project paid through government funding: $390,000 from Glendale’s allocated HUD funding, $500,000 in state funding and $13.7 million from the federal low-income housing tax credit equity fund. This funding at the federal, state and city level is available because the project is being used for public housing. Helping Hands is paying for the remaining $17.2 million through private loans.

The Bethany Crossing project will include five apartment buildings, averaging 14 units per building, across a 5.2-acre property.

Housing application changes

For Glendale residents in need of housing assistance, being placed at the bottom of a waitlist might discourage them from even applying. After changes approved by City Council last week, residents just added to the waitlist will have a chance of being selected before others on the list, based on need and on a random lottery.

“These plans govern our policies and general program requirements on eligibility as well as basic operations,” said Glendale’s Interim Community Services Director Jean Moreno. “All of the proposed changes to these plans are designed to benefit our residents by making it easier to access services and information about our programs.”

In the past, new applicants were granted housing to one of Glendale’s 155 public housing apartments — soon to be 227 — or one of over 1,000 Housing Choice Vouchers off the city’s waitlist based on a preference point system and based on when their application was submitted. Glendale has now removed the time of the application from consideration and is instead granting housing off the waitlist based on the preference point system and a random lottery drawing. Requested number of bedrooms is also considered. Glendale’s public housing apartments range from one- to four-bedroom.

To qualify for housing assistance, individual or family must be low-income (making 80% of the median area income, as defined by HUD), very-low income (making 50% of the median area income) or extremely low-income (30% of the median area income).

In its change to the housing application, the city also tweaked its preference point system. The system mostly weights whether the applicant lives or works in Glendale and is working at least 20 hours a week or is elderly or disabled. The new system gives slightly more weight on whether an applicant has been displaced by government action, is homeless or is a victim of domestic violence. The city also eliminated the “displaced homemaker” category because Glendale is now counting the income of an “absent spouse” not living with the applicant, unless the couple is legally separated.

In efforts to improve communication and outreach, the city has made the key program documents and application materials available in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Farsi, Arabic, Burmese and Braille as well as in English and Spanish and is expanding language translation services to assist applicants in understanding and completing applications.

The city is also broadening its target audiences in marketing and outreach methods to include more diverse news outlets, multiple human service organizations and additional community stakeholders.

Other changes to the city’s application process included removing references to medical marijuana, as it was legalized in Arizona in 2010.

The application has been updated to adhere to federal, not state, law allowing for families with mixed citizenship or immigration status to qualify for housing assistance. Now, only one member of a family needs to be a U.S. citizen or have eligible immigration status. However, rent will be prorated based on the number of family members with eligible immigration status. This means a “mixed” family may pay higher rent than a family where all members are U.S. citizens or have eligible immigration status. The new application language states Glendale will not verify a family member’s immigration status if not seeking benefits and is not required to report unlawful presence to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Glendale is no longer restricting who can live with public housing recipients. They city removed a section stating the city will only allow family member to be added to a public housing unit if it is a newborn baby, an adopted child or if the resident was awarded custody of a child, a marriage or romantic partner. The only exceptions under the former rules were if the family could demonstrate they had medical needs or extenuating circumstances.

The city wants to stay updated of who’s living in its public housing units though. Glendale added language stating any change is family circumstances, household composition or income, must be reported to the housing authority within ten days of the occurrence. It also redefined income to include any money deposited into the resident’s bank account.

Lastly, when a public housing recipient becomes considered over-income for the program — making 120% of the area median income for two consecutive years — HUD gives the option of terminate assistance or allow them to remain in public housing on increased rent. Glendale clarified that it will terminate assistance in that case.

Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@newszap.com or found on Twitter @mwcarlisle.

Mark Carlisle
Associate Editor | Daily Independent
@mwcarlisle

mcarlisle@iniusa.org

Mark is passionate about accurately informing his readers to what is happening in their community. He also loves reading and writing about sports. Mark has worked for Independent Newsmedia for five years. He married his high school sweetheart, adopted a boxer mix, and awaits his first child.