[Link to
GCH-0009](http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/lops/GCH-0009LOPS.doc)

[Link to
GCH-0068](http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/lops/GCH-0068LOPS.doc)

[Link to
GCH-0075](http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/lops/GCH-0075LOPS.doc)

[Link to
GCH-0087](http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/lops/GCH-0087LOPS.doc)

[Link to
GCH-0092](http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/lops/GCH-0092LOPS.doc)

Legal Opinion: GCH-0098

Index: 2.800

Subject: Non-Elderly Single Persons in Elderly Housing

May 25, 1994

NOTE TO: Ulysses B. Brinkley

FROM: Michael Reardon

SUBJECT: Singles Rule

This responds to your cc mail request for advice as to whether the 1990

and 1992 amendments to section 3(b) of the USH Act removing previous

statutory limitations on the eligibility of single persons who are not

elderly, disabled or displaced in section 8 projects had the effect of
making

such persons eligible for admission to section 202/8 projects.

Attached is a November 23, 1987, memorandum from Judith Y.

Brachman, former Assistant Secretary for FH&EO, and Thomas T. Demery,
former

Assistant Housing Commissioner, to Region II describing the three-tier
process

for determining whether applicants are eligible for admission to section
202

projects receiving section 8 assistance. In the various contexts under
which

it was necessary to consider both sets of statutory requirements, the
most

restrictive requirement was applied in order that neither statute would
be

violated. Thus, applicants for admission had to be either elderly or
disabled

(section 202) and low-income (section 8).

The direct loan program under section 202 of the Housing Acted of 1959

was replaced by a capital advance program for the elderly and a separate

program for the disabled (sections 801 and 811 of NAHA) with project
rental

assistance that was no longer under section 8. Thus changes affecting
section

8 would no longer have applicability to the section 202 and 811
programs. The

remaining question is, therefore, whether removal of the statutory
restriction

on admission of single persons under USH Act programs would apply to
section

202/8 projects. It may first be noted that earlier partial removal of
bars to

the admissions of singles, first to 15 percent and then to 30 percent
under

specified conditions was not considered applicable to section

202/8 projects. The regulatory implementation for section 8 projects (24
CFR

812.3(c)(2); 24 CFR 912.3(c)(2)) listed parts 880, 881, 883, and 886 but

excluded part 885.

The final question is, then, whether Title VI of the 1992 Act when

considered in its entirely made singles who are neither elderly nor
disabled

eligible for admission to section 202 projects. We note first that the
change

for section 8 and public housing projects merely removed the bar to the
last

excluded class; for section 202, the change would have the effect of
making

singles eligible when families whose head or spouse was neither elderly
nor

disabled would not be eligible.

Insofar as the respective statutes are concerned, it does not appear

that the 1992 Act amended section 202, which continued to be limited,
for

section 202/8 projects, to the elderly and disabled, and to the elderly
for

the capital advance projects. The question arises under section 683 of
the

1992 Act because both section 202/8 and section 202 capital advance
projects

are included on the list of \"Federally assisted housing.\" The House
Bill

H.R. 5334 and Committee Report (H.R. Rep. 102-760, p. 41), excluded
\"the

section 202 housing program under the 1959 Act prior to the enactment of
NAHA

as covered federally assisted housing.\" Further, section 657 of the
1992 Act

expressly provides that certain federally assisted projects designed for

occupancy by elderly families (including housing assisted under section
202

before enactment of NAHA) may continue to restrict occupancy to elderly

families. For the foregoing reasons, we believe it is clear that the
1992 Act

amendments did not make singles who are neither elderly nor disabled
eligible

for admission to section 202/8 projects. For capital advance projects,

changes to the USH Act would not be applicable.

Attachment