Housing Voucher Programs - Policy and Procedures Manual

Chapter II Sections

1. Opening A Waiting List
2. Outreach
3. Application Distribution Procedures
4. Application Review Procedures
5. Waiting List Placement Procedures
6. Notice of Application Acceptance Procedures
7. Waiting Lists for Special Programs
8. Enter Data in Elite
9. Printing the Waiting List
10. Ranking Applications
11. Changes While on the Waiting List
12. Waiting List Pulls
13. Removing Applicant Names from Waiting List
14. Purging/Updating Waiting List
15. Closing an Open Waiting List
16. Cross Listing Notice for MRP/SRO
17. Application Maintenance
18. File Retention
19. Portability
20. Special Admissions
21. Applicable Forms List

Chapter II: Waiting List Management

Section J: Ranking Applications

Ranking preferences are used when selecting among applicants. An applicant who qualifies for a ranking preference receives priority placement over applicants without one. Within the ranking preference (i.e. residency), the sequence date then determines an applicant's placement on the waiting list. MSHDA ranks its preferences in the following order of priority:

1. Participants transferring from another Housing Agency as portability vouchers receive immediate assistance. See Chapter XVI, Portability.
2. Residency Preference - applies to every type of application over non-residency
   1. A residency preference applies to the entire county and must be granted to all households who verify they reside in the county of application, or the applicant (head, co-head, or spouse) works or has been hired to work in the county of application, at the time of application and again at the time the application is pulled from the waiting list.
   2. For example, assume that a family residing in Oakland County applied for the open Wayne County waiting list in July 2001 and a family residing in Wayne County applied for and verified residency for the open Wayne County waiting list in December 2001. The Oakland County family does not live or work in Wayne County and would be considered a non-resident on the waiting list. Even though the Oakland County family applied first, the Wayne County household would receive assistance before the Oakland County household because they resided in Wayne County at the time of application and would be considered a resident on the waiting list and receive the residency preference.
3. Homeless Preference in Select Counties.
   1. Homeless with HOME Tenant Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) receive priority ranking on the HARP waiting list.
   2. Homeless without HOME TBRA.