McHenry County Housing Authority - How is it doing?

Recently a situation involving the McHenry County Housing Authority (MCHA) was called to my attention. It involved a Section 8 tenant who had had his housing assistance reduced it. Unfairly, it seemed.

It should have been easy to resolve. After all, there are regulations that dictate how monthly assistance is calculated. I expected that the regulations had been in place for years and should be well understood by the employees who are in charge of such calculations.

Who establishes the regulations? HUD does. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, of which the Hon. Ben Carson, M.D. is the Secretary.

OK, so what was going on?

The tenant reported to MCHA that he had found employment and that his income would change. This would mean a re-calculation of his housing assistance. No problem so far.

But then the MCHA wanted to inspect his checking account statement for deposits of income. And this is where the problem began.

The tenant's statement showed deposits, which the MCHA employee questioned. When the tenant answered that he had made some pawn shop transactions and had deposited the amounts borrowed, the MCHA employee decided those deposits were "income", and she re-calculated and lowered his housing assistance because of that "income".

If you are a client of the MCHA or know someone who is, have you, or have they, had any problems with adjustments in their housing assistance?

If you (or they) challenged MCHA decisions, what was the outcome?

Come back tomorrow for the "next chapter" in this tenant's story.