Year-Round Farm Labor

Program Basics

The purpose of the Multi-Family Housing programs is to provide adequate, affordable, decent, safe, and sanitary rental units for very low-, low-, and moderate-income households in rural areas.

Farmworkers are typically categorized into two groups, permanent and migrant. Permanent farmworkers are typically employed year-round by the same employer or in the same region.

Funding for this program is provided by the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development and the Department of Housing & Community Development.

General Eligibility Criteria

To be admitted, applicants must meet these basic requirements:

1. Must meet the Authority’s income requirements.
   • The extremely low-income limit is established at approximately 30% of the median income for the area, adjusted for household size;
   • The very low-income limit is established at approximately 50% of the median income for the area, adjusted for household size;
   • The low-income limit is established at approximately 80% of the median income for the area, adjusted for household size.
2. Meet the program’s definition of an eligible household.

The Authority may determine an applicant ineligible for occupancy based on screening criteria other than those required above only if such criteria are included in the project’s management plan. The screening criteria may not contain arbitrary or discriminatory rejection criteria, but may consider an applicant’s past rental and credit history and relations with other tenants.

Admissions

Application Process

All applications, whether complete, eligible, or ineligible, will be placed on the list. The waiting list will document the final disposition of all applications (rejected, withdrawn, or placed in a unit).

The date and time a complete application was submitted will be recorded on the waiting list and will establish priority for selection from the list. If an applicant submits an incomplete application, they must be notified in writing within 10 days of the items that are needed for the application to be considered complete and that priority will not be established until the additional items are received.

Once an applicant has submitted a complete application and signed a form authorizing the Authority to verify employment, the date and time must be recorded on the waiting list to establish priority for selection.

Unit Assignment

When a unit becomes available, the Authority must determine who is entitled to that unit.

Eligible tenants residing in the property who are either under- or over-housed receive priority over new applicants if relocating them into the newly vacant unit would bring the household into compliance with the occupancy policy for the property.

If there are no such over- or under-housed existing tenants, the Authority must select a new applicant from the waiting list to fill the newly vacant unit.

Once selected from the waiting list, an applicant will be screened for income and household eligibility. If found eligible, the applicant then executes a lease and lease amendments.

Continued Occupancy

In order to ensure that the household remains eligible for the program, the household must be recertified on an annual basis.

Additionally, changes in the household must be reported to the Authority so that an interim recertification can be processed. Changes that trigger an interim recertification are:

• Household status changes that impact the size of the unit needed by the household; and/or
• Changes in household income that will impact the amount of rent they are obligated to pay.

Any household that fails to complete their annual recertification or report changes in the household can be found in non-compliance and can potentially lose their housing.

Lease Execution & Termination

A lease between the Authority and the tenant is required to be executed before any tenant occupies a unit.

Once a lease has been executed with the applicant, they are entitled to occupy the unit so long as they remain eligible and comply with lease renewal requirements. Expiration of the lease is not of itself grounds for a termination of tenancy.

The Authority may terminate or refuse to renew a tenant’s lease for material noncompliance with the lease or occupancy rules, or for other good cause. Examples of lease violations include but are not limited to:

• Nonpayment or repeated late payment of rent;
• Admission to or conviction for use, attempted use, possession, manufacture, sale, or distribution of an illegal controlled substance;
• Violations of the occupancy rules.

Felix Torres Farmworker Housing Center

Address: 925 N. Plainsburg Rd., Planada, CA 95365
Phone: (209) 382-2003

Staff Contacts

RD Application Packet