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NMHC offers emergency housing assistance
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Posted on Sep 24 2004
The Northern Marianas Housing Corp. is calling on eligible families to apply for emergency housing assistance as federal funds are now available for people displaced by Supertyphoon Tingting.
NHMC program and housing manager Norman K. Pangelinan said that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved the agency’s request for emergency disaster voucher.
He said the federal agency approved a total of 63 vouchers under the section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.
“It’s better that they come now because of the limited number of vouchers,” said Pangelinan.
The housing choice voucher program is a major federal program for assisting very low-come families, the elderly, and people with disabilities “to afford a decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private sector.”
The program is limited to U.S. citizens and specified categories of non-U.S. citizens who have eligible immigration status.
Recipients usually pay a minimum of $25 monthly rent—depending on the family’s income and size—and the remaining amount is shouldered by NMHC.
If the applicant is eligible, NMHC puts the applicant’s name on the waiting list, unless it is able to extend help immediately.
Under the rules, NMHC may set up preferences for selecting applicants. For instance, it may give preference to a family that is homeless or living in substandard housing, paying more than 50 percent of its income for rent, or involuntary displaced.
Once a housing unit is approved by NMHC, the family and the landlord sign a lease, and at the same time, the landlord and NMHC sign a housing assistance payments contract that runs for the same term as the lease.
Meantime, NMHC said that those families whose homes were destroyed by Typhoon Tingting may report to the NMHC Office to update their application for housing assistance.
For more details, people can contact Pangelinan at 234-6866/7670 on Saipan and Frances H. Diaz at 433-9213 on Tinian Monday through Friday, except holidays, from 7:30am through 4:30pm.
