Shelter Costs - Effecting Changes
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This section includes information about what happens when a change in shelter expenses is reported.
Policy
For NA and CA shelter costs must be reported when the budgetary unit has a change in address and the budgetary unit is assigned to Standard Reporting.
Change in shelter expenses is not a reporting requirement for budgetary units assigned to Simplified Reporting.
For CA, changes to shelter costs may also change the CA Payment Standard.
Procedures
For standard change procedures and guidelines regarding the appropriate month to effect the change, see When to Effect Changes.
Using the guidelines in the policy, key the appropriate screens in AZTECS and redetermine eligibility and the current benefit level for the appropriate month.
NOTE Budget only expenses that have been verified. Do not stop benefits when expenses needing verification are not verified. Remove unverified expenses and redetermine eligibility without the expense.
See any of the following links to policy and procedures specific to shelter costs, when needed:
For the safety of the participant, do not upload any document that shows the actual address of an Address Confidentiality Program (ACP) participant. Any person who intentionally obtains or discloses information regarding the physical address of an ACP participant is potentially guilty of a class one misdemeanor.Verification
The participant has the primary responsibility for providing verification. (See Participant Responsibilities – Providing Verification for additional policy.)
Participant statement verification can be used as the primary source of verification for shelter expenses when no other verification is available at the time of the interview or change, except when any of the following occur:
●The expense is in another person’s name who is outside the budgetary unit.
●The participant’s statement is questionable(g).
Documents that may be used for shelter and utility expense verification include, and are not limited to, any of the following:
●A landlord statement which includes signature and phone number
●A lease agreement
●A utility bill
●Insurance bill or receipt
●Yearly escrow statement from mortgage lender
●Mortgage receipt, record, agreement or payment book
●Rent receipt
AZTECS Keying Procedures
In AZTECS complete all of the following:
●For CA, key all of the following on the EXNS screen:
The A1 or A2 standard in the STD/LVL based on the type of program.
The appropriate verification code in the VR field.
●For both NA and CA, complete all of the following on the EXNS screen:
When expenses are shared, key the number of budgetary units that share expenses in the # OF HH SHARING field. This field is optional.
Key Y in the WS field to access the EXPC work screen when an expense must be converted, like income.
Key the TY code for the type of expense, next to the person responsible for the expense.
In the SUB field, key the code for the sub type, when applicable. Not all expense types have a sub type code.
Key the amount of the expense in the AMOUNT field.
In the VR field, key the verification code that describes how the information was verified. Complete this field after keying EXPC when applicable.
When verification is provided for utility costs, key the current month and year (MMYY) in the UTILITY COSTS LAST VERIFIED field.
When verification is provided for shelter expenses, key the current month and year (MMYY) in the SHELTER COSTS LAST VERIFIED field.
●Press ENTER to continue through the AZTECS road map.
●From NORE send the appropriate change notice. (See When to Effect Changes notices for a list of change notices.)
Legal Authorities
7 CFR 273.9(d)(6)(ii)(a-b)
7 CFR 273.9(d)(6)(ii)(d-e)
AAC R6-12-705
last revised 04/24/2023