Waiting List Maintenance
The following is an abbreviated summary. Please see the 40B Guidelines for more details.
1. The guidelines now state that you can close waiting lists if you have enough applicants on them to be placed in the next 12 months. However, we advise against closing the Waiting Lists unless maintaining them is a huge administrative burden because if you do close the waiting list, you will likely have to do marketing in addition to the annual marketing detailed in this Plan, followed by a specific application period (at least 10 days) and another lottery. If you keep them open, you avoid the headaches of the lottery etc.
2. Annual Requirements: Be sure to continue to market the affordable units at least annually (see “Continued Marketing”). You also need to update your Waiting List annually by requesting updates from households on your Waiting List. A Waiting List Update notice should be sent along with the Waiting List Application to all households on your waiting list notifying them of the need to update their information. If a household does not complete the annual waiting list update, you should send them a Notice of Removal from Waiting List form letter. Make sure that proper forms are used for all correspondences with Waiting List Applicants. Whenever and wherever possible, remind applicants that they need to keep a file of all income, asset and tax documentation as they will need to submit all this material during their eligibility review.
3. Maintain a separate waiting list for every unit type, and include a separate waiting list for disabled accessible units. For example:
Studio Waiting List
1BR Waiting List
2BR Waiting List
3BR Waiting List
TBD Disabled-Accessible Waiting Lists
4. Any household that asks about an affordable unit going forward must complete a Waiting List Application and be put on the appropriate Waiting List(s). The Waiting List Application must indicate: unit size for which they are applying, household size, need for a DA unit, and optional minority question. It should also include household “TYPE” so you can give proper priority based on the 40b guidelines mentioned below as the program gives priority to certain household compositions over similarly sized households which have a different composition or “TYPE”. Households will be placed on each waitlist for which they qualify based on the TIME they applied and their household TYPE (see above).
From the 40b guidelines:
Within an applicant pool first preference shall be given to households requiring the total number of bedrooms in the unit based on the following criteria:
a. There is at least one occupant per bedroom.*
b. A husband and wife, or those in a similar living arrangement, shall be required to share a bedroom. Other household members may share but shall not be required to share a bedroom.
c. A person described in the first sentence of (b) shall not be required to share a bedroom if a consequence of sharing would be a severe adverse impact on his or her mental or physical health and the lottery agent receives reliable medical documentation as to such impact of sharing.
Within an applicant pool second preference shall be given to households requiring the number of bedrooms in the unit minus one, based on the above criteria. Third preference shall be given to households requiring the number of bedrooms in the unit minus, two, based on the above criteria.
*Disabled households must not be excluded from a preference for a larger unit based on household size if such larger unit is needed as a reasonable accommodation.