**sigh** subsidized housing woes

[summer]

So my mom may not get a place in a building with assistance for older/disabled people that she's been waiting years for because they can see that we send her money. We pay for her medications because no other social program factors in how much she spends on medication, including rent assistance. So the fact that I don't want her to die and pay for her meds apparently means she is rich and therefore has to keep living in the awful place she is now. :-(


Sorry- should have put that in randoms post but too lazy to do that now on my phone.

[iammalcolmx]

Can you call someone? Do I need to impersonate you and fly there?

[orangeblossom]

I'm so sorry. I hope she's still able to get in.

[Velar Fricative]

Oh shit, I'm so sorry. I hope there is some way to make this right.

[Deleted]

What bullshit. I hope she can still qualify.

[twohearted]

Maybe look into a special needs trust.

[gpw]

I know how hard it is, trust me. We are going through the same thing with my mom. It's maddening. I'm sorry you're dealing with it, too.

[penguingrrl]

That's absolutely insane! I'm so sorry.

[forreals]

So frustrating did that money putting her over income or are they saying it is fraudulent that she hadn't reported getting it?

Is your mom disabled? If a doctor signs a form saying she meets HUD's definition of disability, she should be entitled to both a discount in rent (small one but everything helps) as well as have medical expenses deducted from her income when they do her rent calculation.

Feel free to PM me if you want to brainstorm.

[5thofjuly]

No advice, unfortunately, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry to those of you (and your families) who are going through this.

[MrsAxilla]

I'm sorry. It sucks that we don't take adequate care of our seniors.

[summer]

Sept 12, 2015 21:03:19 GMT -5 forreals said:

So frustrating did that money putting her over income or are they saying it is fraudulent that she hadn't reported getting it?

Is your mom disabled? If a doctor signs a form saying she meets HUD's definition of disability, she should be entitled to both a discount in rent (small one but everything helps) as well as have medical expenses deducted from her income when they do her rent calculation.

Feel free to PM me if you want to brainstorm.

I have to get more details so I'm not sure what their issue was. Honestly I never would have thought to hide it or send it through other means. Anyone who looks at her bank account to see the money we give, should also see that even with that, she comes up way short. Before we started giving she was thousands of dollars in debt from getting repeated payday loans to cover the gap. That was a nightmare and why I HATE payday loans with the fire of a thousand suns. And she doesn't even buy all her meds because she can't afford them.

I will definitely PM after I speak to her. Thanks for the offer.

[forreals]

Sept 12, 2015 22:44:50 GMT -5 summer said:

Sept 12, 2015 21:03:19 GMT -5 forreals said:

So frustrating did that money putting her over income or are they saying it is fraudulent that she hadn't reported getting it?

Is your mom disabled? If a doctor signs a form saying she meets HUD's definition of disability, she should be entitled to both a discount in rent (small one but everything helps) as well as have medical expenses deducted from her income when they do her rent calculation.

Feel free to PM me if you want to brainstorm.

I have to get more details so I'm not sure what their issue was. Honestly I never would have thought to hide it or send it through other means. Anyone who looks at her bank account to see the money we give, should also see that even with that, she comes up way short. Before we started giving she was thousands of dollars in debt from getting repeated payday loans to cover the gap. That was a nightmare and why I HATE payday loans with the fire of a thousand suns. And she doesn't even buy all her meds because she can't afford them.

I will definitely PM after I speak to her. Thanks for the offer.

It's just so frustrating:( payday loans really are the worst.

HUD doesn't "care" if people have enough money. They care that people are paying 30% of all income and they include regular financial assistance from friends and family in that. People have giant deductions taken from their checks for anything from previous government overpayment or child support and none if that is taken into account, even if it would mean they can't afford the subsidized rent.

Please do pm me. I am happy to help if I can.

[livinitup]

Stay on it, the appeal process is fairly wonky, and may go to your favor. It's so unpredictable.

I am a social worker and I hate government housing programs with such red hot anger. It's such a convoluted system of rules and sanctions. It seems simple - report all income. If that income is less than a really, really low number (ridiculously low) and you repeatedly prove it a thousand ways, then you qualify. Or they loose your application.

You are caught in a terrible bind. I've seen it - they don't count "bills" when evaluating income. So, even though you are paying for life saving medication, it is still income for her. It's a formula. It would be the same if you were paying for food or paying her child support or a vacation or anything.

I wish I could give you concrete advice. You can't undo the proof of income, it's in the account. You may be able to get someone to notice the stupidity through the appeal process. There may be a way to "not count" part of her income - to get her income under the qualifying limit. That may or may not be related to the medication bills. She may qualify for a medical deduction - qualifying medical expenses may reduce her income liability. Keep a close eye on the mail and appeal dates. She has a right to appeal and she absolutely needs to NOT miss the deadlines. Keep appealing, keep copies, I've often seen an approval on the third appeal.

[summer]

Sept 13, 2015 9:46:26 GMT -5 livinitup said:

Stay on it, the appeal process is fairly wonky, and may go to your favor. It's so unpredictable.

I am a social worker and I hate government housing programs with such red hot anger. It's such a convoluted system of rules and sanctions. It seems simple - report all income. If that income is less than a really, really low number (ridiculously low) and you repeatedly prove it a thousand ways, then you qualify. Or they loose your application.

You are caught in a terrible bind. I've seen it - they don't count "bills" when evaluating income. So, even though you are paying for life saving medication, it is still income for her. It's a formula. It would be the same if you were paying for food or paying her child support or a vacation or anything.

I wish I could give you concrete advice. You can't undo the proof of income, it's in the account. You may be able to get someone to notice the stupidity through the appeal process. There may be a way to "not count" part of her income - to get her income under the qualifying limit. That may or may not be related to the medication bills. She may qualify for a medical deduction - qualifying medical expenses may reduce her income liability. Keep a close eye on the mail and appeal dates. She has a right to appeal and she absolutely needs to NOT miss the deadlines. Keep appealing, keep copies, I've often seen an approval on the third appeal.

Thank you. I will definitely keep this in mind if I can get her a caseworker somehow. She doesn't have one and definitely can't advocate for herself. I can't imagine her getting to a third appeal. Her mental state means she lacks the motivation to make a phone call or fill out a one page form. Things have to be DIRE for her to do that on the same day she is asked to. Usually she has to "work up to" filling out the form. A third appeal would mean aliens would have had to take over the functioning of her body. 

[Cicero]

I have no advice but ((hugs)). I can't imagine the toll this must be taking on you to have to deal with from across an ocean.

[tripleshot]

I have no advice about the system. Could you buy her gift cards to the pharmacy online and have them shipped to her address? That way you're not depositing cash to her account. Or maybe a visa gift card?

[orriskitten]

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I had a lot of struggles with trying to get help for my great grandma (she is now 103 years old and was not okay enough to be in housing without actual assistance), but it sounds like a different situation in regards to what you're trying to help her get in to.

We dealt with Medicaid, which was a circus to try to get to happen because of the agency we needed to use, but once she was on that, she got a caseworker who actually pulled through in a really horrible time. It took some asking to speak to someone else in the agency to get that help, but we eventually found the people we needed to.

I don't have much advice, but hope you can find the help you need.

[josieposy]

I have no advice, but I am sorry to hear this. It sounds insanely frustrating.