5.4.3 Payment Delay due to Lack of Verification that Eviction or Foreclosure Will Not Proceed

1. Is facing impending homelessness due to a financial crisis and has received a notice to terminate tenancy; and

2. The agency has not verified that the landlord, bank, or local government that issued the notice agrees not to proceed with the eviction or foreclosure if the payment is received.

Within five working days after verifying that the landlord, bank, or local government agency that issued the notice agrees not to proceed with the eviction or foreclosure if the payment is received, the W-2 agency must issue the payment and update the application status to “Approved” in WWP. The W-2 agency may receive the confirmation verbally or in writing. (See 4.3.1)

If the landlord, bank, or local government is unresponsive or unwilling to stop the eviction or foreclosure process, the W-2 agency must inform the applicant of the option to move to new permanent housing. If the applicant chooses to pursue new housing, then a new payment delay to search for permanent housing would apply. (See 5.4.2)

EXAMPLE 1: Mary applied for EA on October 8th as she had received an eviction notice from her landlord for non-payment of rent. Within five working days of her application, the W-2 agency verified nonfinancial and financial eligibility and Mary was found eligible for EA due to impending homelessness. The W-2 agency requested that Mary inform her landlord that a payment was available if the landlord agreed not to proceed with the eviction. Mary’s landlord called the W-2 agency and verbally confirmed that he would not proceed with the eviction. The W-2 agency then issued the payment to Mary’s landlord. The W-2 agency mailed a cover letter to Mary’s landlord to confirm that upon receipt of the payment, the landlord would not proceed with evicting Mary.

EXAMPLE 2: Joe applied for EA on January 20th after receiving an eviction notice from his landlord for non-payment of rent. Within five working days of his application, the W-2 agency found him eligible for EA due to impending homelessness but was unable to confirm with his landlord that they agree not to proceed with the eviction. The EA worker submitted his application in “Pending – No Confirmation from Current Landlord” status. After multiple attempts of contacting an unresponsive landlord, the EA worker advised Joe of his option to move to new permanent housing, which he agreed he was going to proceed with. The EA worker changed the application status to “Pending – No New Housing Initial 60 days” to generate a new notice and start the 60-day timeframe for Joe to search for new housing.