How is Assistance Calculated?

Household income includes the total of gross wages, child support received, unemployment compensation, Social Security SSI SSD, income from assets, etc., for all family members.

Deductions from gross income include an annual; dependent deduction per child and allowable child care expenses for children under the age of 13 for working families. Child care expenses may not exceed amount of employment. For seniors, handicapped, or disabled households, there is an annual deduction in addition to allowable non-reimbursed medical expenses over 3% of yearly income.

Program participants pay 30% of household's adjusted income (+ 100% of the amount over the assigned payment standard (subsidy level) if rent and utilities combined exceed the payment standard.

It is important to note that the household payment standard will be based on the households composition AND the actual number of bedrooms in the unit. The Housing Authority will determine which payment standard is to be used for a household.

Payment Standards for the City of Janesville

Payment Standards

The Housing Authority pays the landlord the difference between 30% of the participants adjusted household income and the payment standard. This amount is paid directly to the landlord.

These limits include rent and tenant-paid utilities. If the rent doesn't include utilities, tenant-paid utilities are calculated based on a schedule of monthly utility averages for Janesville. Using this schedule, we calculate the utility allowance for the unit.

The rent plus the utility allowance is the gross rent for the unit. If the gross rent exceeds the payment standard, the program participant pays 30% of the household's adjusted monthly income plus 100% of the amount over the payment standard. The gross rent must be Rent Reasonable.

The tenant cannot pay more than 40% of the household's adjusted monthly income for rent/utilities. This situation happens when the household is very low income and the gross rent is above the payment standard.