II. Preferences Requirements
The regulation sets out rules that apply to a Service Manager’s system for selecting households for rent-geared-to-income assistance (see sections 46-51). The regulation is amended to include section 46.1 which states that a Service Manager’s system must include rules that allow a household to indicate their preferences for housing projects in the Service Manager’s service area. The rules must:
- Provide that until a household indicates their preferences, their preferences would be for any housing project in the Service Manager's area or in any part of the service area determined by the Service Manager.
- Permit a household to change or remove its preference for a housing project.
Service Managers are required to make reasonable efforts to notify households of rules regarding preferences.
III. Service Manager Local Rule - Occupancy Standards
Section 38 allows Service Managers to establish a local eligibility rule that a household is no longer eligible for rent-geared-to-income if it occupies a unit that is larger than is permitted under the Service Manager's occupancy standards. The rule must indicate that the household is not ineligible
- until a year after it is notified by the Service Manager that it occupies a unit that is larger than permitted, and
- if it is following the process specified in the rule or by the Service Manager to be transferred to a unit that is permissible under the Service Manager’s occupancy standards.
Section 38 is amended and states that the process to be transferred set out in the rule or specified by the Service Manager must provide that a household is ineligible for rent-geared-to-income assistance if, after a year from being notified that it is in a unit that is larger than permitted, it refuses an offer to transfer to another unit that is permissible under the Service Manager's occupancy standards.
The process must also provide that the Service Manager may determine that a household remains eligible if the Service Manager determines there are extenuating circumstances.
Further information
Further Information The amended regulation is available through the following hyperlink: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/requlation/r19318
Should you have any questions, please contact Rhona Duncan, Manager, Community Housing Renewal Unit. Rhona Duncan can be reached by telephone at (416) 585-7228, or by e-mail at rhona.duncan@ontario.ca