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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Public housing has
rules of engagementQuestion: Are residents allowed to have their boyfriends/girlfriends live with them in public low-income housing? The rental agreement says only those whose names are on the agreement when they move into the housing are allowed to live in public housing. However, apparently some residents are being allowed to add names onto their agreements to live with them. Many of these people do not work. If this is so, why is this being allowed and who approved the new policy?
Answer: The head of household or the person whose name appears on a rental lease must apply to have another person or persons added to his or her lease before they can join the household, said Robert J. Hall, acting executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Corporation of Hawaii.
Generally, the housing agency would not approve the addition of someone who has not been born, married, or legally adopted into the family, he said.
But the unit manager would evaluate each application, looking at several factors.
"In this situation, the primary factor to be considered is the resident's plans to marry the new person," Hall said. "If the manager feels that marriage is definite, then the new person will be added to the lease on the condition that the marriage does take place within a specified period of time."
If there is little or no evidence that marriage is imminent, then the manager won't approve the addition, he said.
Hall also noted that managers can authorize "overnight visitors" whose visit cannot exceed 30 days.
The family must seek the agency's approval for any visitor staying more than one day in a year.
"Visitors who remain beyond the 30 days will be considered trespassers and their continued presence will constitute a breach of the lease, which could eventually lead to eviction from their unit," Hall said.
These long-standing provisions are found in the agency's housing operations manual, "Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy for Public Housing Programs," which is maintained at each management unit.
Asked how the housing agency monitors who lives in an apartment, Hall said that, as a condition of each household's rental agreement/lease, any changes in family composition must be reported.
Each family also must meet with management annually to determine continued occupancy, at which time household composition is confirmed, Hall said.
But management also welcomes reports of suspicious living arrangements and will investigate such reports, he said. Reports can be made directly to the management office assigned to the specific public housing project site.
"HCDCH vigorously enforces fair and equal housing for all our applicants for housing and our current residents," Hall said. "We also have expectations on the part of our residents to comply with the terms of their rental leases with HCDCH. We continuously encourage our residents to report any problems they observe because it may adversely affect the living environment within their housing projects."
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