Wrenmarsh Commons has 142 apartments in three buildings on one block in Mardell. Rent here is not a market price. It is thirty cents out of every dollar of your adjusted monthly income, and heat, water and trash are included. There is a waiting list, and this page explains how it works in plain words.
An illustration, not a photograph. Wrenmarsh Commons is a fictional community and these three buildings were drawn for this sample.
Wrenmarsh Commons was built in 1988 by a small nonprofit sponsor under the federal Section 202 program, which funds apartment buildings for older adults with low incomes. Every apartment here carries project based rental assistance. That phrase matters in one practical way: the help is attached to the apartment, not to you, so you do not have to bring a voucher with you and you do not lose the help if you move inside the building.
We are not a nursing home and not an assisted living community. Residents live independently in their own apartments. What we add is a building designed for people who are getting older, and a service coordinator down the hall whose whole job is helping you reach the services you are entitled to.
All 142 apartments have a full kitchen, a private bathroom with grab bars, a separate thermostat and an emergency pull cord. Every building has an elevator, a laundry room on each floor and a community room on the ground floor.
One main room with a kitchen along the wall, a walk in closet and a full bathroom. About 480 square feet. The easiest to clean and the shortest wait.
A separate bedroom with a door, a living room big enough for a sofa and a table, and a kitchen you can stand in. About 620 square feet. This is most of the building.
For two people who need two bedrooms, or for one person with a documented need for a second room. About 790 square feet. Only ten of them, so the wait is the longest in the building.
Start with everything the household receives in a year: Social Security, a pension, interest, anything regular. Then subtract the deductions the program allows, which for a household of our age usually means a flat deduction for an elderly household plus out of pocket medical costs above a threshold. What is left is your adjusted annual income. Your rent for the year is thirty percent of that, divided by twelve.
The rental assistance on the apartment pays the difference between your share and what the apartment costs. You never see a bill for that part, and the amount changes when your income changes, which is the whole point of the arrangement.
Thirty percent of $15,900 is $4,770 a year, which is $398 a month. The apartment costs $945, so the rental assistance covers the remaining $547. If next year this household's medical costs rise, the adjusted income falls and the $398 falls with it.
Illustrative mock data. Every figure in this example was invented for this sample.
Three things decide it: age, income and whether you can live independently with the help that is available to you. Nothing else.
| Household | Very low income limit | Extremely low income limit | Apartments you may apply for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $28,850 | $17,300 | Studio or one bedroom |
| 2 people | $32,950 | $19,750 | One bedroom or two bedroom |
| 3 people | $37,100 | $22,250 | Two bedroom |
Age. The head of the household has to be 62 or over on the day the apartment is offered. A spouse or co head may be younger.
Income. The household's income has to be at or under the very low income limit for its size. Most people who live here are well under it. Assets count only through the small amount of income they produce, so a modest savings account does not disqualify you.
Living independently. You need to be able to manage your own apartment, with help from family, from home care or from the services our coordinator can arrange. We do not provide nursing care, and we do not ask you to prove you are in perfect health.
What does not decide it. Credit score is not a cut off here, though we do check rental history and we do run the criminal background screening the program requires. If something in your history worries you, say so when you apply rather than hoping we miss it.
Illustrative mock data. Wrenmarsh Commons is fictional, and every apartment count, square footage, rent figure and income limit on this page was invented for this sample.
There is no way to make this short, so here is the honest version. We have 142 apartments, almost all of them occupied by people who intend to stay. Apartments come open when somebody moves to a higher level of care, moves in with family or dies. That is roughly two or three a month across the whole block. There are 214 households on the list today.
Telephone the office, come to the door between 9 and 4 on a weekday, or ask a relative or a case worker to call for you. We will mail one, hand you one, or sit down and fill it out with you. There is no fee, and there never is one.
Date and time, in order of arrival. That stamp is your place in line and nobody can move you up it, including us. Keep the copy we give you.
Age, household size, income against the limit, rental history, and the screening the program requires. This takes two to four weeks. If you are not eligible we tell you why in writing and tell you how to ask us to look again.
Twice a year we send a short letter asking whether you still want to be on the list and whether anything has changed. Answer it. That letter is the single most common reason people fall off a waiting list.
We work down the list for that size of apartment. You see the apartment, and you may say no. You can decline two offers without losing your place. After a third we move you to the bottom and tell you so in writing.
About ten days between yes and move in: income verification, the lease, the rent calculation, a walk through. We hand you the keys and the service coordinator knocks on your door that first week.
Those are middles, not promises. Somebody on the studio list got a call in six weeks last spring because of where they sat and which apartment opened. Somebody else has been waiting two years for a two bedroom because only ten exist and nobody has left one.
We lose you. You move, the telephone changes, the letter comes back. Call the office with a new number the week it changes, and give us a second person we may contact.
You say no at the wrong moment. An offer arrives in a bad month and you decline. That is allowed twice. If the timing is the only problem, tell us that, because sometimes we can hold an apartment a short while.
Your paperwork is somewhere else. When the call comes we need an award letter, identification and proof of medical costs quickly. Put them in one envelope now.
You wait to ask for help. If the application form defeats you, that is a normal Tuesday here. Somebody in the office will fill it in with you, and that help does not affect your place in line.
Illustrative mock data. The list counts, wait times and process above were invented for this sample and are not any real community's admissions policy.
Two coordinators work here, one for each side of the block, between them covering every occupied apartment. The job is not care. The job is knowing which door to knock on in the county and getting you to it. It is free, it is voluntary, and what you tell them stays with them.
A county nurse holds open hours on the first and third Wednesday of the month, 10 AM to noon, in the Marsh House community room. No appointment and no charge.
The benefits counselor comes the second Tuesday and will go through a stack of mail with you line by line, which is most of what that appointment turns out to be.
A hearing and vision clinic visits twice a year, in April and October, and a podiatrist comes monthly. All of it is in the building, which is the only reason some people go at all.
Drawn initials, not photographs. These four people are invented for this sample.
Illustrative mock data. The staffing, the clinic schedule and the service list above were invented for this sample.
Not an activity brochure. These are the three things residents bring up first when somebody new asks them what living here is like.
Somebody unlocks the Marsh House community room and starts the urn. No sign up and no program. It is the reason three or four people get dressed and come downstairs at all, which the coordinators will tell you is not a small thing.
Eighteen raised beds in the courtyard, built high enough to garden standing up or from a chair. Residents run the list of who has which bed. Tomatoes go on the table in the lobby every August whether anyone asks for them or not.
Groceries on Tuesday, the pharmacy and the bank on Friday, and medical appointments by arrangement in between. It has a ramp and it waits for you. Sign the clipboard by the Linden House mailboxes.
Illustrative mock data. These three vignettes were invented for this sample.
Usually at the counter, usually with an adult son or daughter standing there holding a folder. Here they are written down.
Thirty percent of your adjusted monthly income. For most of our residents that lands between about $240 and $700 a month. We can work out your number on the telephone in about ten minutes if you have your award letter in front of you, and we will give you that figure before you decide anything.
No. No application fee, no holding fee, no deposit to join the list, and nobody here is paid for putting you on it. If anyone ever asks you for money to get onto a list like this one, that is your sign to stop and telephone the office directly.
Today, around eleven months for a studio, nineteen months for a one bedroom and thirty one months for a two bedroom. Those are middles and your own wait could be much shorter or much longer. We will tell you where you sit on the list any time you ask.
Included: heat, water, sewer, trash, the laundry rooms, the community rooms, all maintenance and the service coordinator. You pay for electricity in your own apartment, and for telephone, internet and television if you want them. Your rent calculation already allows for the electricity, which is why your share may come out slightly lower than a flat thirty percent.
Once a year, on the anniversary of your move in, we recalculate your rent from your current income. We write to you about four months ahead, then we sit down together, you bring your award letter and your medical receipts, and we sign a new rent figure. It takes about forty minutes. If your income has not changed your rent will barely move. It is a chore, not a test.
Tell us that week. A drop in income means a lower rent, but only from the date you report it, so waiting costs you money. An increase works the same way in reverse, and reporting it late tends to create a balance owed that nobody enjoys sorting out.
Any additional household member has to be approved and added to the lease, and the household then has to fit the apartment size rules and the income limit for the new household size. A live in aide is handled differently and does not count against your income. Come and talk to us before anybody moves in, not after.
Most people bring the help to the apartment. Home care, home delivered meals and a family member doing the shopping will carry a lot of people a long way, and the coordinator will help you assemble it. If you reach the point of needing care around the clock, this is not the right building, and the coordinator will help you and your family find the one that is.
Yes. One cat or one dog up to twenty five pounds, or two birds, or a fish tank, with a pet deposit paid in installments if that helps. Assistance animals are not pets and are not subject to the deposit or the weight limit.
Illustrative mock data. The answers above were invented for this sample and are not any real community's policies.
Rental assistance covers rent. It does not cover a mattress, a window air conditioner in a bad July, a utility bill that got away from somebody over the winter, or the fifty dollars of moving help that stands between a person and their new apartment.
The Wrenmarsh Fund is for exactly those things. It is held by our nonprofit sponsor, it is spent in amounts between twenty and six hundred dollars, and the coordinators bring requests to it rather than residents having to ask. Last year it was used 61 times.
Drive the van. Two mornings a month, a clean record and a willingness to wait outside a clinic with a newspaper. We train you and we cover the mileage.
Run the telephone clinic. One hour a week in the community room, helping people with a device that has defeated them. This is the single most requested thing in the building.
Take a garden bed. Three of the eighteen raised beds are unclaimed because the residents who had them can no longer kneel. Share one with somebody who will tell you what to plant.
Give to the fund. Any amount, once or monthly. Our sponsor publishes what the fund spent and on what, every year, in one page that a person can actually read.
Illustrative mock data. The fund, its uses and the figure of 61 uses were invented for this sample.
If your move in anniversary is in January, a letter is on its way with a date and a list of what to bring. Twenty three households are in this round, which is the biggest month of our year. Call Fern if the date does not suit you and we will move it.
We used to send one a year. Too many people fell off the list between letters because a telephone number changed. From now on they go out in April and October, and all you have to do is sign and return the card.
Nine days out of service and we know exactly how long nine days is when you live on the third floor. The new controller is in, the inspection passed, and thank you to the neighbors who carried groceries for each other.
Illustrative mock data. These notices describe events that did not happen, at a community that does not exist.
The fastest way is the telephone, and a real person answers it between 9 and 4 on weekdays. If you would rather come in, the office is the first door inside Marsh House and you do not need an appointment.
Wrenmarsh Commons
18 Wrenmarsh Lane
Mardell, Ohio
Office (555) 017-4120
Waiting list (555) 017-4133
Service coordinators (555) 017-4147
Email waitlist@wrenmarsh-commons.example
If English is not your first language, say so when you call and we will arrange an interpreter at no cost. The same goes for large print, and for somebody to read a document aloud to you.
Illustrative mock data. A sample form on a sample page for a community that does not exist.