How to start transitional housing: programs, leases and who pays
How to start transitional housing: programs, leases and who pays
Transitional housing is a time-limited home that helps someone move on to permanent housing. Before you start, the first question is who pays, because a grant brings its own rules about leases and fees.
This is general information, not legal advice. Read the rules of your actual funder.
Three ways it gets funded
- Residents pay rent. No program rules beyond ordinary housing law, and you find the residents yourself.
- A federal or local grant pays part of the cost. You gain funding and take on the funder's rules and reporting.
- An agency or family pays for a resident. A nonprofit, a reentry program or a relative pays you directly.
A single house can have several kinds of payer.
Grants matter less to a private owner than they first appear. HUD Continuum of Care grants go to nonprofits, states and local governments, not to individual owners, and the VA program has its own eligibility rules. An owner usually joins as the landlord who leases to a funded provider. Contact your local Continuum of Care or VA homeless programs office to learn how it works where you are.
If HUD Continuum of Care money is involved
- Lease length: when Continuum of Care rental assistance pays for the unit, participants sign a lease of at least one month. It renews automatically when it expires unless either party gives prior notice, up to a maximum term of 24 months.
- The 24-month goal: the program aims to move people to permanent housing within 24 months.
- Staying longer: a person may stay past 24 months, but HUD may discontinue a project if more than half of its residents stay longer.
Ask your funder how it wants a stay past 24 months documented. Either way, you need the dates of every resident's stay, and you need to be able to find them quickly.
If you are serving veterans
The VA's Grant and Per Diem program funds transitional supportive housing for homeless veterans. A provider may charge a participant fee, but 38 CFR 61.82 caps it at 30% of the participant's monthly income after medical, child-care and court-ordered payments. It also cannot exceed the program's maximum rate or the HUD Fair Market Rent, whichever is lower.
That means two residents in the same house can owe different amounts. Keep each person's amount on their own account, along with how you worked it out.
If you are serving people leaving custody
Reentry housing is often run with a nonprofit or a parole or probation office. Ask who sends residents, who pays, how long stays last and what you must report. Do not assume your house is approved because a case manager called you. Get it in writing.
Before you open
- Ask the city how it classifies the house, and tell them how many unrelated adults will live there.
- Write one agreement per resident, with the start date, the amount, the payer and how the stay ends.
- Find out if residents count as tenants in your state. In some states they do, and then normal eviction steps may apply.
- Advertise the house, not the people. Eligibility rules that come from a funder are one thing. Rules you invent are another. Ask a lawyer about the difference.
Records that keep a program funded
- Move-in and move-out date per resident
- Amount charged and paid per resident, by month
- Who paid: the resident, an agency or family
- Signed agreement for each stay
- Inspections and repairs per house
Where Rentology fits
Rentology keeps the housing records for a house rented room by room. A house counts as one property at the normal plan price ($149 a month covers up to 3 properties), plus $6 a month for each room with its own lease. Rent is created every month per resident, and residents can pay by bank transfer, or you record cash and checks by hand. An agency or family member can pay through one private page with no login or app, with email receipts and a yearly summary they can print. Moving a resident out stops rent after the move-out date.
Splitting one room's rent between two payers is not available yet, and grant reports stay with you or your provider. You can try it free for 14 days with up to 5 houses.