The Trainer — December 2012

USING HOME VISITS TO SCREEN APPLICANTS; ANNUALIZING EMPLOYMENT INCOME 

In this month’s feature, we discussed how some management companies conduct a home visit to applicants' current residences before deciding whether to accept or reject them. While HUD allows you to make home visits, it doesn't go into detail on how to make them. So we explained how to use home visits to get important information about applicants without violating HUD rules or inviting discrimination claims.

In our article on income calculations, we discussed how, sometimes, you can’t be certain how much employment income household members will actually get during the coming 12 months. In these instances, you must “annualize” their employment income—that is, project it for the next 12 months based on current information. We reviewed the rules for annualizing employment income in five situations, so you won’t end up miscalculating household income and assistance.

TRAINER'S QUIZ

INSTRUCTIONS: Each of the questions below has only one correct answer. On a separate sheet of paper, write down the number of each question, followed by the answer you have chosen—for example, (1) b, (2) a, and so on. The correct answers (with explanations) follow the quiz. Good luck!

QUESTION #1

Since HUD says you must apply your screening criteria uniformly to all applicants, home visits are an all-or-nothing proposition—either all applicants get home visits or none do. True or false?

a.   True.

b.   False.

QUESTION #2

You should give an applicant at least three days’ notice of a home visit. True or false?

a.   True.

b.   False.

QUESTION #3

During the home visit, you should ask applicants to explain:

a.   Discrepancies between the apparent number of occupants living in the unit and the number of household members indicated on the application.

b.   Substandard conditions in the unit that would lead to inspection deficiencies at your site.

c.   Whether the applicant plans to take the pets you see with her to your site, even though she didn’t mention any pets on her application.

d.   Any drug paraphernalia you see in the unit.

e.   All of the above.

f.   a, b, and c.

QUESTION #4

Household members Diego and Sara both have full-time, nonsalaried jobs. Diego earns wages biweekly, and Sara earns wages semimonthly. To annualize their incomes correctly, you should:

a.   Multiply Diego’s wages by 26 and Sara’s wages by 24.

b.   Multiply Diego’s wages by 24 and Sara’s wages by 26.

c.   Multiply both their wages by 26.

d.   None of the above.

QUESTION #5

An applicant who teaches elementary school children receives substantial paid vacation time. You should deduct from her salary the holidays and paid vacation time when she doesn’t work. True or false?

a.   True.

b.   False.

QUESTION #6

Marta tutors a student two hours a week and gets paid $15 an hour. You expect Marta will tutor this student for 50 hours over the next 12 months. What is her annualized tutoring income?

a.   $360.

b.   $1,500.

c.   $750.

d.   None of the above.

QUESTION #7

Mike gets $350 a month in unemployment compensation. He expects to get his last unemployment check three months into his certification year, but you haven’t gotten written verification that his unemployment compensation will end. To calculate his unemployment compensation income, you should multiply the monthly compensation amount ($350) by:

a.   3, since Mike expects his unemployment benefits to run out in three months.

b.   12, because without written verification, you can’t be sure when Mike’s unemployment benefits will run out.