Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers

The housing choice voucher program is the federal government's major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments. The participant is free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and is not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects. The program serves the most economically vulnerable families in the country, including families with disabilities, elderly families, formerly homeless veterans, and families with children, through federal assistance voucher payments in the provision of meeting their rental housing needs. HUD regulations merged the former Section 8 Rental Voucher program (14.855) with the former Section 8 Certificate program (14.857). Section 502 of the Public Housing Reform Act states that a purpose of the legislation is "consolidating the voucher and certificate programs for rental assistance under Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (the "USHA") into a single market-driven program that will assist in making tenant-based rental assistance more successful at helping low-income families obtain affordable housing and will increase housing choice for low-income families". The HCVP is administered by local public housing agencies (PHAs) authorized under State law to operate housing programs within an area or jurisdiction. The PHAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the voucher program. The PHA accepts a family’s application for rental assistance, selects the applicant family for admission, and issues the selected family a voucher confirming the family’s eligibility for assistance. The family must then find and lease a dwelling unit suitable to the family’s needs and desires in the private rental market. The PHAs sign Housing Assistant Payment contracts with the landlords, and housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the PHA on behalf of the participating family. The family then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program. Under certain circumstances, if authorized by the PHA, a family may use its voucher to purchase a modest home.

Applicants are limited to public housing agencies (PHAs). A PHA is defined as any State, county, municipality or other governmental entity or public body (or agency or instrumentality thereof) which is authorized to engage in or assist in the development or operation of housing for very low income families, a Consortia or Regional PHAs; any other nonprofit entity that was administering a Section 8 tenant-based program on October 21, 1998; or, for an area outside the jurisdiction of a PHA administering a voucher program, a private nonprofit entity or a governmental entity or public body that would otherwise lack jurisdiction to administer the program in such area.

Very low-income families (whose income does not exceed 50 percent of the median income for the area as determined by the Secretary with adjustments for smaller and larger families) and, on an exception basis, lower income families (whose income does not exceed 80 percent of the median income for the area, adjusted for smaller and larger families). At least 75 percent of families admitted to the voucher program during the PHA fiscal year must be extremely low-income families (whose income does not exceed 30 percent of the median income for the area).

Submission of Application for Housing Assistance Payments Program (Form HUD-52515).

The Management and Operations Division, with assistance from the Program Support Division, generally makes the final decision based on the results of the rating and ranking process for new special purpose vouchers.