“Jenae” and her 5-year old son are on the Jacksonville Housing Authority Section 8 Voucher program through which her rent goes up and down with her income. While unemployed, Jenae was not required to pay rent, as Section 8 paid the landlord the full $680. Jenae was able to find seasonal work over the holidays, which enabled her to start paying $626 of her rent, with Section 8 paying the $54 difference. Unfortunately, the seasonal work ended before Christmas, and Jenae was once again unemployed. When she reported and documented her job loss to the housing authority in December, the agency should have resumed paying her full rent in January. However, Jenae’s case manager was on vacation and did not recertify her income by the end of the month. When Jenae finally was able to speak with her case manager Jan. 3, he said it was too late, that her rent change would not go into effect until February, and that she would need to pay $626 for her January rent. However, HUD regulations only required her to provide the information and verification to the Jacksonville Housing Authority office before Jan. 1, which she had done. Without any income, Jenae couldn’t pay her $626 rent for January and received a three-day non-payment eviction notice from her landlord. Jenae contacted JALA on Jan. 7 and the Intake Unit scheduled an interview for the following day. JALA attorneys immediately recognized the illegality of the housing authority’s actions and were able to correct the situation before an eviction was filed in court. A JALA staff attorney also contacted the landlord’s attorney and advised him that JALA was seeking to resolve the error so that the landlord would get paid by the housing authority for January. Within 24 hours, the housing authority supervisor agreed that the paperwork was sufficient and recertified Jenae as owing no rent retroactive to Jan. 1. In the end, no eviction was filed, no court costs were incurred, and no damage was done to Jenae’s credit. Most importantly, Jenae and her son did not become homelessness over a clerical error by the housing authority.
