Can my relatives or friends move in with me?

Your lease will say who is allowed to live in your home. If you want to have someone else move in or stay with you for an extended period of time, you should ask the landlord for permission. The landlord may want to raise the rent for additional people. If the landlord agrees to let someone else move in either permanently or temporarily, you should get that agreement in writing.

If you are pregnant or have to add a child to the lease, please review the fair housing section of this booklet carefully. A landlord covered by fair housing laws may not discriminate against a pregnant family member or a family for adding a child to the lease if they are the parent, legal custody or designee of the parent. This includes foster children and grandchildren. Discrimination could include the landlord saying the family has to move out because there isn’t enough room for everyone.

​Sometimes, a tenant becomes disabled and needs a caretaker to stay with them all or part of the time. The tenant may be able to make a request to allow that person to move in, as a reasonable accommodation of their disability. If the tenant lives in public housing, the caretaker’s income should not be included as part of the household for rent calculation purposes.