Preserving Homes, Preserving Families

Yesterday I had to go to court for my job. I work in housing and it was a nonpayment case. I have known this tenant since she was a child because her family lived on site all during her childhood. Later she and several sibs each moved out of the family unit and rented their own apartments at our site. Over time, mom and dad moved to elderly housing. This particular tenant is so nice. And so bad with money. For years we have been dealing with this and things finally reached a point where the only option left was to try a court ordered repayment so that she would stick to the plan and not get behind again.

My company atty is not usually big on tenancy preservation. I am. I am because I believe that subsidized housing is supposed to be a stepping stone to a better life. I also know that when that key piece of the life is lost, that often very bad things happen. Kids are sometimes removed from their families in a worst case scenario. In a best case scenario they deal with bouncing from couch to couch, "guests" of family and friends while the parent tries to piece together some other form of housing.

This particular time though I had managed to get our attorney on board with tenancy preservation and she and i spent 40 minutes trying to help this tenant budget so that we could structure a repayment plan she could live with and which would realistically handle the debt. As we left the courthouse the attorney and I we came up with a really cool idea. What if part of the court ordered repayment plans was a clause requiring the tenant to attend budget counselling for a year. Upon presenting us with the certificate of completion, we as management would waive the court costs (which would save the tenant a couple of hundred dollars) and maybe, just maybe, they would get some skills that would prevent the problem from happening again.

I am off work the first part of next week, (we are installing a new kitchen ceiling here at home), but I am going to call around and look for non profits that do this kind of thing. Time to get some info together and make a big proposal to our main office!