8.26.055 - Payment for replacement housing for tenants and others.

Payment for replacement housing for tenants and others.

(1) In addition to amounts otherwise authorized by this chapter, a displacing agency shall make a payment to or for a displaced person displaced from a dwelling not eligible to receive a payment under RCW 8.26.045 if the dwelling was actually and lawfully occupied by the displaced person for not less than ninety days immediately before (a) the initiation of negotiations for acquisition of the dwelling, or (b) in any case in which displacement is not a direct result of acquisition, such other event as the lead agency prescribes. The payment shall consist of the amount necessary to enable the person to lease or rent for a period not to exceed forty-two months, a comparable replacement dwelling, but not to exceed five thousand two hundred fifty dollars. At the discretion of the displacing agency, a payment under this subsection may be made in periodic installments. Computation of a payment under this subsection to a low-income displaced person for a comparable replacement dwelling shall take into account the person's income.

     (2) A person eligible for a payment under subsection (1) of this section may elect to apply the payment to a down payment on, and other incidental expenses pursuant to, the purchase of a decent, safe, and sanitary replacement dwelling. The person may, at the discretion of the displacing agency, be eligible under this subsection for the maximum payment allowed under subsection (1) of this section, except that, in the case of a displaced homeowner who has owned and occupied the displacement dwelling for at least ninety days but not more than one hundred eighty days immediately before the initiation of negotiations for the acquisition of the dwelling, the payment shall not exceed the payment the person would otherwise have received under RCW 8.26.045(1) had the person owned and occupied the displacement dwelling one hundred eighty days immediately before the initiation of the negotiations.

[1988 c 90 § 5.]

Notes: Section captions -- 1988 c 90: See note following RCW 8.26.010.