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Housing Costs - SNAP (Food Stamps)

In the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamp Program), housing costs include the monthly costs of rent, mortgage, lot rent for a mobile home, condominium fees, homeowners association dues, or other continuing charges leading to ownership such as loan repayments for the purchase of a mobile home, including interest on such payments.

Mortgage costs include principal and interest payments, second and third mortgages regardless of the use of the money, or mortgage payment on land when the home is owned or rented. If your household has been granted a suspension of rent or mortgage payments (a moratorium), then do not count the rent or mortgage expense until the suspension is lifted.

Penalty fees for making late payments are not allowable. Also, do not include expenses for which your household is reimbursed.

If your household resides in a group home and is making its own payments, or a protective payee is handling the payments using your household's own fund, room costs which can be separately identified are allowable shelter costs. If the amount the resident pays for room and meals is combined into one amount, the amount which exceeds the food stamp maximum allotment amount for a one-person household is allowed as a shelter expense.

If the expense is billed less often than monthly, average the billing over the interval between scheduled billings to arrive at a monthly amount.

If your household is engaged in a self-employment business run out of its home and claims some of these costs as costs of doing business, your household cannot claim those same costs here as well. The costs that are not claimed as costs of doing business may be claimed when answering this question.

In addition to deducting these types of shelter costs incurred where your household resides, your household may also include these types of shelter costs for a home your household is not occupying when answering this question, if all of the following are met:

·        The home is unoccupied because of illness, employment or training away from home, natural disaster or casualty loss;

·        The household intends to return to the home;

·        Any current occupants are not claiming shelter costs for SNAP (Food Stamps); and

·        The home is not leased or rented.

If you reside in Oklahoma, read about exceptions related to condominium fees in the topic "Housing Costs Exception (Oklahoma) - SNAP (Food Stamps)".

If you reside in New Hampshire, read about exceptions related to condominium fees in the topic "Housing Costs Exception (New Hampshire) - SNAP (Food Stamps)".

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