New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 5 - COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Chapter 80 - NEW JERSEY HOUSING AND MORTGAGE FINANCE AGENCY
Subchapter 7 - TENANT SELECTION STANDARDS
Section 5:80-7.5 - Priorities and preferences
Universal Citation: NJ Admin Code 5:80-7.5
Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 18, September 16, 2024
(a) Owners may give priority or preference for admission to otherwise eligible applicants in (b) and (c) below so long as such priorities and preferences are consistent with the fair housing laws and the owner's Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan.
(b) Handicapped, disabled, displaced and substandard housing applicants shall be treated as follows:
1. For all units, owners must give
preference to applicants who are either living in substandard housing or are
displaced by government action or activity.
2. For all units designed specifically for
the elderly, owners must give priority to elderly, handicapped and disabled
applicants on an equal basis.
3.
For all barrier free or partially barrier free units designed specifically for
handicapped or disabled persons, owners must give first priority to handicapped
or disabled persons who need the modified design to permit them to operate
independently with comparative ease under normal circumstances. All other
handicapped or disabled persons will be given second priority. The elderly will
be given third priority.
(c) Residency preference shall be as follows:
1. While owners may not require local
residency as a pre-requisite for admission, with Agency and HUD approval,
owners may give priority to residents of the municipality (here defined as the
smallest unit of government, that is, town, city, county) in which the project
is located.
2. The Agency will
approve the use of local residency preferences only if such preferences will
not be inconsistent with equal opportunity requirements or frustrate
achievement of the goals of the Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan. For
example, if the Agency determines that affirmative marketing goals and
objectives cannot reasonably be achieved with a residency preference for all
units, the Agency may deny a request for use of residency preferences or
approve it for only a portion of the units. For example, where the affirmative
marketing goal is five or 10 percent of the units in a project, the agency may
approve a residency preference for only 95 or 90 percent of the units.
Residency preferences may be used during initial rent-up and to fill vacancies
occurring subsequent to the rent-up period.
i.
When applying residency preferences, persons expected to reside in the
municipality as a result of current or planned employment must be counted as
residents. "Planned employment" means that an individual has a bona fide offer
to work in the municipality.
ii. If
there are applicants on the chronological waiting list, the owner may select a
resident over a non-resident even if the non-resident is higher on the waiting
list or exhibits greater need. However, if there are no eligible residents on
the waiting list, an owner cannot hold a unit open until an eligible resident
is found.
iii. If certain
categories of applicants are targeted on the Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing
Plan and if there are insufficient numbers of such applicants who are residents
of the municipality, then the owner must solicit those applicants from outside
the municipality.
(d) In the case of assisted living residences (ALRs), preferences and priorities may be set according to the New Jersey Medicaid procedures and guidelines or the guidelines of any other insurer that may be paying for the costs of services to the applicant.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. New Jersey may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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