Finding an apartment with limited income can be a small feat but it is certainly a doable challenge. It necessitates some pre-planning as waiting lists can be a lengthy depending on where your specific apartment is located. (In our case, it was a couple years long).
You will need to locate the area or county you wish for your senior to live and than go on a search that offers sliding scale, Section 8, LIHTC or whatever works the best for your specific situation. Section 8 is pretty difficult to obtain, as it is gone within mere minutes of becoming available I am told by those in the know.
I can’t say that you will be fortunate enough to find an empty apartment so that you can view it so you will need to do some googling to determine if it would be a place you might like your loved one to live. (This will be important as if they are not happy you will need to move them again and it will affect their overall health and well being living somewhere they are not happy – voice of experience here).
Ok so now that you have probably done the ol’ Google thing to find those lower income apartments (or whatever works best for your situation). You will need to grab a notebook, computer or what ever you want to use as a later reference, get ready to be redundant and ask lots of personal questions of the senior.
Application Time!
Obtain the applications, whether online, requesting they be sent to you or visiting the office. (I suggest you fill the applications out, especially if your senior has any type of health issue or they are easily overwhelmed). I always tried to call to see if I could get an idea of the wait list so that an urgency could be determined while obtaining the application.
Now it is time to dig into those applications. You will need to know a lot of personal things about them; their social security number, income, bills, and well you will get the idea. Plan for it to take a few hours to fill it out, but the great thing is that you can use the first one as a reference for all the others. And yes, I do recommend you apply to more than one apartment complex, simply because you may not get into that first choice for a long period of time.
As you are determining which is your first choice and so on, not only ensure that it will be a comfortable apartment for them during the remaining years (hopefully) BUT it also should be a location that is convenient to you. (You will need to deliver those necessities to them at unexpected times, you know bread or milk or even medications).
Return all of the parts of the pre-application as quickly as possible, especially if time is something you need to be conscious of. I do HIGHLY suggest you computerize the application or make a copy before you return it. It will help you so much with the upcoming paperwork you may need to fill out – such as the actual application when you get the call that an apartment is open and you accept it.
Once you return the pre- application, time to start preparing for the move. In our case, we needed to down size items so cleaning up and out was one of those things we did while we waited. (Find out the square footage of the apartment so that you know what what you have to work with, how many rooms, etc). I would also suggest going through bills and other financial items with your senior so that you know you have a handle on what is what and ensure that there is enough money to pay for a deposit, a months rent, pet deposits and last month’s rent as necessary, and, of course any prorated rent. And, of course, there will be address changes to take care of at some point in the process.
Death by Documentation
Once that call comes, be ready – you will need to provide a LOT of documentation for sliding scale rentals. They will be able to provide you with a list but the short of it – bills, social security verification letters, life insurance valuation letters, bank account statements, 401K information, pension confirmation (do they actually receive it, how long will it last and how much kind of thing), items sold in the last two years (along with their value, amount sold for and whom sold to with contact information) and information on property that is owned (yeap they can still own property in some situations).
In some cases, you will also need to provide medical information (how much spent on doctors, medications, etc). Yeap the amount of paperwork that will need to be acquired will be dizzying the first time because inevitably you will forget something. And that is ok. I do suggest you scan these pieces of information or copy them as you will need them and you won’t want to give up the originals. Don’t count on the apartment complex to make copies for you, it is always the most efficient and quicker once you are in the office doing paperwork to have it all ready to go. I scanned it all but also printed it off and kept the copied paper work in a notebook and the supporting documentation in a large envelope.
Oh and be sure that your paperwork is all current, some will need to be the previous 3 months, some will need to be within the last 30 days but your checklist should let you know those things. If it is not on the checklist inquire with the apartment complex so you don’t collect the wrong things as that will add to the frustration of the process and delay move in day.
Know that as you are collecting these items, most places will NOT speak to you, you will need to have a Power of Attorney, a letter sent from the senior to let the company know you are speaking on their behalf (many I dealt with did it for one time only, not on an ongoing basis) or have them with you when you make the calls so that they can provide permission. Any government entity will require the person to be with you so that they can ask specific to them questions (and it will be noted that they are not under duress) before you are able to speak with representative on the other end of the phone. And it will take a couple of weeks in some cases to receive the paperwork you need.
Get use to all of the hoops you will be jumping through as it will become common place.
The most important thing is do not stress over all of it, especially while you are working directly your senior.
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