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262 (07/2026) Chapter 2:Eligibility • Section 5: Financial eligibility Additional considerations: • The individual can choose whether to allow the housing expense in the month it is billed or becomes due, or to average the cost over the period it is intended to cover. Therefore, a tax or insurance bill could be allowed as an expense in one month or averaged. In ONE, code the frequency as one time and add an end date, or as annual and ONE will average over the 12 months.
For example, to average a tax bill for $1,800 over a 12-month period, the deduction would be $1,800 divided by 12 months = $150 per month. This tax amount would be added to any payment amount plus averaged insurance amount to calculate the total monthly housing deduction. The worker does not do this calculation, ONE does it. The worker will code $1800 billed annually.
It is often to the best interest of the applicant to average the cost over a period of time and receive increased benefits for the total certification period, rather than allowing the cost in one month and increasing benefits for one month only. • For housing expenses billed on a weekly or every other week basis, these payments are converted to a monthly amount by multiplying weekly amounts by 4.3 and amounts paid every other week by 2.15. ONE will do this calculation when the worker enters the amount and the frequency correctly into the system.
For example, an applicant charged $80 per week for housing expenses would have a housing cost of $80 x 4.3 = $344 per month. • When a filing group shares housing expenses with persons in the dwelling who are outside the filing group, the deduction is allowed only for the amount actually incurred by the filing group.
For example, if two filing groups each pay half of the $450 rent, a $225 deduction is allowed. If the filing group collects the rent from the other group and then forwards the full amount to the landlord, the $225 is not counted from the other group as income or as a housing cost; it is not considered to be income and does not affect the SNAP calculation. Code $450 in the “Total Expense Amount” field and $225 in the “Out of Pocket Responsibility” field. • In some instances, a SNAP filing group does not have an allowable shelter expense because they are not responsible for the shelter expenses.
A SNAP group may not be responsible for the shelter expenses if they are working at an apartment complex in exchange for rent. In this situation, the value of the rent is coded as “Third Party/In Kind Income” on the “Specific Income” screens and will not be counted as income in the SNAP budget.
The SNAP group does not have an allowable shelter expense when the group is not responsible for making the rent payment.
If a SNAP group receives Section 8, HUD, or other community agency housing assistance that pays part, or all of their monthly rent expenses directly to the landlord or mortgage company, the SNAP group does not have an allowable shelter expense for the portion paid by housing assistance. However, if the housing assistance is paid directly to the SNAP group, it is coded as a contribution and because they are still responsible for their full rent or mortgage