Local Preferences

All selections based on local preferences are done within the general parameters of the provisions of the QHWRA (Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act).

Within all local preference categories for JCHA owned family sites, the following priorities will apply:

	Jersey City residents are selected before non-Jersey City residents. "Resident" is defined as an applicant who lives, works or has been hired to work in Jersey City.
	Veterans are selected before non-veterans. "Veteran" is defined as an applicant who has completed at least 90 days of active duty (except veterans discharged earlier for a service-connected disability) in the United States Armed Forces and has a discharge other than dishonorable. This veteran status extends to spouses, widows, widowers and parents of the military killed during a time of war and certain merchant seamen who served in active, ocean-going service from December 7, 1941 through August 15, 1945.
	Victims/witnesses, including formally certified victims of domestic violence, are selected before non-victim/witnesses.
	Preference Over Single Person - single persons are eligible for placement; however, the following conditions apply to such placements: an applicant that is a one or two-person elderly, disabled or displaced family must be given preference over an applicant that is a single person who is not elderly or (prior to placement) displaced person, or a person with disabilities.
	Special Needs Placements (Wheelchair-Accessible Units). The JCHA will first offer a vacant wheelchair accessible unit to existing residents who require such a unit. If there are no current residents who require the unit or if the unit is refused, it will then be offered to the next eligible, appropriately sized applicant family on the Public Housing waiting list requiring a wheelchair accessible apartment.

Applicants are selected based on their meeting the qualifications for one of the following Local Preferences:

Working Family Preference (25% of placements)

Applicants receive this preference if:

	Employment is principal source of income; or
	Head or Spouse is 62 years of age or older; or*
	Head or Spouse receives Social Security Disability benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Disability benefits, or Temporary Unemployment benefits or other benefits based on inability to work or*
	Head or Spouse has completed self-sufficiency or job training program or meets equivalent standards of economic self-sufficiency.

Housing Need Preference (25% of placements)

Applicants receive this preference if:

	Currently paying more than 50% of gross income for rent; or
	Displaced involuntarily by formal government action; or
	Currently living in formally certified substandard housing which has been declared unfit for habitation by a government agency (provided that the family did not cause the condition), or are homeless.

Income Mix Preference (50% of placement)

Applicants receive this preference if:

Family income falls within the ranges of income which are under-represented in JCHA's population when compared to the eligible population of Jersey City. For example, a family size of two (2), whose income is between $11, 495 - $41,000 may qualify for this preference.

Based on previous experience, the JCHA believes that the combination of those families meeting the Working Family and Housing Need preferences will yield the 40% of new admissions being applicants whose income is less than 30% of median income, as required under the QHWRA.

*Included under "Working" preference, in accordance with HUD regulations, in order not to deny the preference to families and individuals for whom employment cannot be their primary source of income due to age or disability.