Rental Housing Rules

General Provisions.Qualified Renter. All County or workforce rental projects are restricted to qualified renters, as defined herein.Application. Each project shall establish interested households for that project by requiring the interested household to submit a written application provided by the project's management entity and any other documents required to establish eligibility.Eligibility. The project's management entity shall review all applications to determine eligibility pursuant to the specific project eligibility criteria established for that project. Eligibility records shall be maintained on-site for at least three years and made available on-site to the County, or its representatives, to monitor upon request.Initial Occupancy Selection.A public lottery shall be conducted for any project that has more applicants than the number of housing units available in that project to establish the initial occupancy selection list. If the number of housing units available is equal to or greater than the number of applicants, selection may be established by a first-come, first-served basis or by lottery.The decision to utilize either the lottery or the first-come, first-served process shall be determined by the developer prior to the sales notice date.A lottery that has multiple preferences shall include all applicants in a single lottery. The selection list will be produced by applying applicant preferences and lottery numbers to sort all applicants into a selection list that has:The qualified buyer applicant with the lowest selection number (first) being a household that has the highest and the most preferences available and has the lowest lottery number, andThe qualified buyer applicant with the highest selection number (last) being a household that has no preferences and the highest lottery number.In a project that utilizes the first-come, first-served method, the developer shall utilize the date and time of receipt of a completed application to establish the chronological order and establish a separate list for each preference available to produce multiple selection lists by preference type.Projects that are developed in phases shall phase their respective restricted marketing periods and phase their respective application and selection processes.Waiting List. All County and workforce rental projects shall maintain a waiting list or lists of interested tenants for each bedroom size. The only preference applied after the initial occupancy of the project is the project employee preference. The project may decline to accept additional names to its bedroom size waiting list when the waiting list has an excess of 25 prospective tenants.Priorities and Preferences.First Priority—Project Employee Preferences. Fifty percent of the total workforce housing units built by the developer for projects that generate workforce housing requirements of 20 housing units or more shall be rented with a preference to employees of the developer and employees within the development area of the project as determined by the Housing Agency.Second Priority—Geographical Preferences. At initial occupancy, one (1) or more geographical preferences may be imposed on the required workforce housing units giving preference to qualified residents that live in a specified geographical area surrounding or adjacent to the project or that are employed within a specific geographical area surrounding or adjacent to the project. A geographical preference may also be extended to qualified residents whose immediate family lives in a specified geographical area surrounding or adjacent to the project.Third Priority—Essential Worker Preferences. Essential Worker providing critical community services such as health care, public safety, emergency first response, education, and the provision and maintenance of necessary community infrastructure.A project that is assisted with government financing may disregard any priority or preference provided by this Chapter that violates Federal fair housing law.