Updated 10/31/23

Below is a breakdown of how the process works for the Eastern Placer County Lease to Locals Incentive Program when securing your own tenants. Please read this closely. It is important you take each of these steps to qualify for the grant program.

***On July 25th Placer County Board of Supervisors approved the extension of the Lease to Locals program through July, 2024. As is typical with each iteration of the program, some guidelines are likely to change. The most notable anticipated change are the new incentive amounts: Any lease starting after November 1, 2023, will be eligible for $4,500/qualified tenant for long-term leases, and $2,000/qualified tenant for seasonal leases, assuming all other qualifications are met.** 

Eastern Placer County Lease to Locals Details

1. Review the property owner requirements to ensure you meet all of the program guideline terms:
   1. The property must be located within Eastern Placer County limits.
   2. The property must not have been a full time rental within the last 12-months. This is defined as having had tenants pay rent to live in the property as their full-time, primary residence, even if the lease term was month to month.
   3. The maximum rent that can be charged is $3,500/month and the property can not be rented to immediate family members.
   4. The property must be a single family home, townhome, privately-owned condo, or vacant room in an owner-occupied property.
      1. Multi-family properties (including apartments and duplexes), hotels, and motels are not eligible for the program.
   5. The property cannot be rented to immediate family members.
2. Applications for the Lease to Locals program must be submitted within 60 days of the start of the lease.

Eastern Placer County Lease to Locals Processing Steps

1. Determine if you are going to rent seasonally (5-11 months) or long-term (12+ months). Click here to see incentive amounts.
2. List the property for rent and start screening tenants. Please see this guide for suggestions of helpful websites to list your property on. 
3. As you look for tenant groups, be sure to verify that the group you select qualifies for the Lease to Locals program. Qualified tenant criteria is as follows
   1. At least 50% of the adults in the household must work at least 20 hours per week for an employer located in the geographic boundaries of the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (TTUSD). 
      1. You will receive a grant for tenants who are locally employed.** (see anticipated program changes at the top of this page)
   2. All children count cumulatively as one additional qualifying tenant.
4. To verify that your tenants qualify for the Lease to Locals Program, you can follow the same steps we go through. Placemate will need employment documents and an application from each tenant (even from tenants that don’t qualify) to ensure the group as a whole qualifies for the program.  By reviewing the below documents yourself, you can verify your tenants qualify before passing them onto Placemate as directed in the next step.
   1. Required documents from each tenant 18 years or older:
      1. A government issued ID
      2. Employment documentation (any one of the following 4 options, as applicable)
         1. 2 of their most recent pay stubs, OR;
         2. A signed employer letter (see example here) or offer letter that verifies:
            1. Employer name, logo, and address
            2. Name of employee
            3. Anticipated start date (if new offer) or when they started originally
            4. Number of hours (ie; full-time, 40 hours week / seasonal, 20 hours a week, etc.)
            5. Location of where they are working
            6. Name, signature of manager / HR, and date signed, OR;
         3. If they have been employed full-time locally since the beginning of the previous calendar year and still hold that job, collect last year’s W-2;
         4. If self employed, required documents include:
            1. A business license registered to a local address AND: 
            2. If the business has been operational for more than 1 year 
               1. Tax returns, OR;
            3. If the business has been operating for less than one year, is off the books, or tenant is self employed via gig work
               1. Internal P&L or,
               2. Employer letter or,
               3. Recent contracts that show volume of work/pay 
   2.  If tenants have children who you would like to receive a grant for, the tenant will also need to provide a copy of their most recent tax returns that show the children as their dependents; for tenants whose child was born within the last year and who have yet to file their taxes for this year, tenant will need to provide a birth certificate.
5. Once you have verified that the tenant group meets the above qualifications, sign a lease with your selected tenants.
   1. If you have any questions about your tenants’ eligibility and documents, let us know and we can help with verification.
6. Next, email your Placemate contact your tenants’ contact information (name, email, phone), so we can send them a link to our online application to collect the documents described above. It helps if you let them know we’ll be reaching out.
7. Once your tenants have completed their Lease to Locals application, and we verify they qualify, we will send you the property owner application, which is a 2 step process:
   1. 1st, we’ll send you the Property Owner Lease Summary form, which gathers basic info about your property and lease, and requires that you upload a signed lease.
   2. 2nd, after we review these materials, we will send you the Property Owner Grant Application for you to review and complete as prompted – this includes:
      1. Property and lease detail attestation
      2. Preview of your expected incentive amount
      3. Check request form
      4. W-9
      5. 590 Form (if you live within CA) or 587 Form (if you live outside of CA)
8. After we receive your completed documents, our final step is to verify via phone, text, or email with the tenants they have moved in. If the lease has not yet started, we will text them on the first day of the lease. We cannot submit the paperwork until the lease has started.
9. Once we have received confirmation that your tenants have moved in, we will submit your application to Eastern Placer County for review and approval. Checks are from the County and can take 30-60 days to be processed and mailed .
   1. Payments are split into two parts. The first half of the total grant is sent after the lease has begun and the County has approved the application and the second half is sent after the lease term has been completed.
10. At the mid-term point of the lease, Placemate will check in with both the tenants and owners to ensure lease terms are being upheld.
11. At the end of the lease, Placemate will check in with both the tenants and owner and submit a request for the second half of the incentive payment.

Please note, as the Lease to Locals program is focused on housing creation, each qualified property may participate in the Lease to Locals program one time. There are no additional incentives after year one. We hope to develop programs addressing housing preservation in the future.

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If you still need to secure tenants, here is some language you can put in your property listing, and a draft lease agreement for you to use if you choose. You are welcome to market your property as you please and use any lease agreement you like, so long as your tenants and lease meet program qualifications. 

Draft Listing Language

The owner of this property is participating in the Eastern Placer Lease to Locals Program aimed at unlocking existing homes for local employee needs. As such, only tenants that meet the following qualifications will be considered for this home:

 1) Work for an Employer in the Region — At least 50% of the adults over 18 in the household (related or unrelated) must work at least 20 hours per week, for an employer located in the geographic boundaries of the Truckee Tahoe Unified School District (TTUSD).

Lease Template

You can use any lease you wish so long as your terms meet the program requirements. Placemate can not legally prepare your lease for you. However, we have worked with local Truckee legal firm MOBO Law, to create a Tahoe-specific lease template you can use.

Click here to view and download the lease template and see instructions.