DHA local preference to return

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November 19, 2009

BY JENNIFER BAILEY The Commercial-News Thu Nov 19, 2009, 08:56 PM CST

DANVILLE — Persons seeking public housing or a Section 8, subsidized housing, voucher will soon see themselves move up the waiting list if they live, work and go to school locally.

The “local preference” is part of a change in the entire preference structure for both DHA’s public housing and Section 8 programs.

A public hearing will be held Monday regarding this and other administrative policy changes and the Danville Housing Authority’s annual and five-year plans, prior to the authority’s board of commissioners acting on the plans next month.

After the hearing, the plans will be delivered to the city for Mayor Scott Eisenhauer to submit a letter with the plans stating they are in compliance with the city’s consolidated plan.

DHA officials must submit the plans to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by early January.

Not a lot of major changes are included in the plans.

The local preference waiting list change will allow local persons to be placed higher on the wait list than applicants from outside the city.

DHA executive director Greg Hilleary said officials will have to confirm a local address with a state-issued identification or confirm someone is working in the community or enrolled at Danville Area Community College.

The authority previously had the local preference, but a HUD representative ruled it was discriminatory, Hilleary previously said. But during a HUD review earlier this year, HUD officials asked why the DHA didn’t have the local preference for residents.

Hilleary said he’s confirmed through HUD they can have a local preference, with correct wording.

Only three preferences will remain for the wait lists: residency, a veteran’s preference and involuntary displacement by a disastrous event.

Applicants have earned points (preferences) toward gaining public housing or the federal rent payment assistance for being part of a two-parent household, being homeless, having a job and being a military veteran, among other criteria.

The two-parent preference is gone.

“There are a lot of single parents out there. This was putting them at a disadvantage,” Hilleary said.

Income preferences are gone too because they were difficult to confirm and slowed the process down, Hilleary said.

He said in general, the preference changes are a more “fair and equitable way to sort the wait list.”

“It will give local residents a leg up on someone applying from outside the county,” he added.

The preferences likely will change early next year.

Hilleary said other plan changes included regulatory-required changes, and officials also left in the plan the possibility of expanding Section 8 services to Iroquois County. This is a way the housing authority could spend more of its Section 8, subsidized housing, funding to not lose more of it.

Hilleary said the issue was kept in the plan in case it becomes a focus in the future.

Other projects planned with federal stimulus money: demolition of the old administration building at Carver Park, renovating the Churchill Towers community room and restructuring Mer Che Manor units.

COMING UP

A public hearing to discuss the Danville Housing Authority’s annual and five-year plans will be at 6 p.m. Monday in the community room at the Fair Oaks Administration Building, 1607 Clyman Lane.

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