As an owner or manager, one of your key responsibilities is to work with households and individuals to determine their correct level of eligibility and amount of rent and to ensure that they are placed in an appropriate unit. This is accomplished through a thorough interview where information is gathered, verified, and applied following HUD regulations and your own policies.

Successful interviewing is crucial to this process. Here are several tips that can help you and your staff during initial eligibility interviews, interim recertifications, and annual recertifications:

• Create a welcome interpersonal environment from the very start. Be sure the person or people you are interviewing are comfortably seated and that the interview space is private. Remember that you often are asking for personal information, and you want to do so respectfully.

• Clearly explain the purpose for the interview and set ground rules. For example, if you prefer to have the interviewees hold all questions until the end, say so. Or if you are comfortable being interrupted when a question arises, let them know they may do so.

• Display interest in the person or people you are talking with and in what they are saying. You want to build a rapport so that they are comfortable talking with you about their circumstances. Be careful, though, not to be patronizing or phony.

• Do not interrupt them with unnecessary questions. But do ask follow-up questions if you don't understand a response or think the answer may be incomplete.

• Be committed to professionalism in the way you behave and in the way you treat those you are interviewing. Dress professionally and be on time.

• Ensure that you are fair in all your dealings with housing applicants and residents. If you are perceived as biased in any way or that you are attempting to simply confirm assumptions about the applicant or resident, you increase the chance that the person will become uncooperative or even confrontational.

• At the end of the interview, recap any missing information you need the individual or family to provide or additional actions they need to take.

Successful interviewing helps you get off on the right foot with new residents and builds on a collegial relationship with existing residents. The outcome of your efforts at successful interviewing is that you are more likely to have residents who will comply with their lease, maintain their unit, and be a good neighbor to others. Plus, they are more likely to feel comfortable coming to you and your staff if they see a problem at your site. Good interviewing skills also can be helpful in the normal course of doing business day to day.

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