The Trainer: February 2018

Setting House Rules on Extended Absences and Abandonment

In this month’s feature, we discussed how to deal with households that seem to disappear for weeks at a time, or who seem to have abandoned their unit. When a unit is left unattended, health and safety hazards such as rotting food or frozen pipes can result. Plus, HUD frowns on wasted assistance if an assisted unit isn’t occupied. These unexplained absences can be frustrating—and may even violate HUD lease provisions that require assisted households to use their units as their primary residence.