With the housing market recovering (in my area anyway,) I’m actually starting to build a waiting list for the Self-Help Housing Program applicants! And while this is great, I’m concerned that if I just go down the list for my next group I will only have one family who is very-low income and the other nine families will be low income. Will this be acceptable to Rural Development? I want to meet the 40 percent very-low income requirement but they are further down the list. What should I do?

Sincerely,

Torn between first on the list and regulations

Dear Super Recruiter,

I am so thrilled to hear of waiting lists again for the Mutual Self-Help Housing Program! And there’s more good news about your predicament; you don’t have to choose! This takes me back to years ago when the program (and nation) was thriving and this situation was coming up for group workers and organizations everywhere.

The solution is simple, it’s two waiting lists. You keep one list for low-income applicants and another for very low-income applicants. They are both maintained in the same manner as your current waiting list; you go through them on a first-come first-serve basis using both lists until you’ve fulfilled the regulation and then strictly by date until your group is filled.

Nice job recruiting applicants! I hope you continue to have such great problems!

Sincerely, Sher

Dear Sher is a regular Self Help Builder News feature. If you have a question you would like answered or researched by Sher, please send them to asisco@rcac.org and your question may be featured in a future publication.