How vouchers work
A Housing Choice Voucher is tenant-based rental assistance. That means the help is attached to your household, and you take it with you when you move to another qualifying home, rather than it being tied to one apartment building. The other main form of Section 8 help, project-based assistance, is attached to a specific building instead: if you move out, that help stays behind. This site is about the tenant-based voucher, the form most people mean when they say Section 8.
The four parties
Four parties each have a job. HUD funds the program and sets the federal rules. Your local PHA runs it day to day: it takes applications, keeps the waiting list, checks eligibility, calculates your rent share, inspects homes, and pays landlords. You, the household, find a home, pay your share on time, follow your lease, and report changes. The landlord provides the home, keeps it up to standard, and is paid partly by you and partly by the PHA.
The process, in order
- Apply to a PHA. You apply to the housing authority for the area where you want to live. There is no single national application.
- Join the waiting list. If the list is open, you are placed on it. Many PHAs use a lottery or a local preference system to order the list.
- Get selected and verified. When your name reaches the top, the PHA verifies income, household members, citizenship or eligible immigration status, and other eligibility factors.
- Receive a voucher. You attend a briefing and receive a voucher showing your bedroom size and the date by which you must find a home. HUD's tenant guidance describes a search time of 60 to 120 days, as set by the PHA.
- Find a home and submit it for approval. You find a private-market home and submit a Request for Tenancy Approval. The landlord completes part of that packet.
- Inspection and rent check. The PHA inspects the home against federal health and safety standards and checks that the rent is reasonable compared with similar unassisted homes nearby.
- Sign and move in. You sign a lease with the landlord, and the landlord signs a Housing Assistance Payments contract with the PHA. Assistance starts, and the PHA pays its share directly to the landlord each month.
- Stay in good standing. Your income and household are reexamined at least once a year, and you must report changes under your PHA's rules. Your rent share is recalculated when your circumstances change.
The payment standard, in one paragraph
Your PHA sets a payment standard for each bedroom size: the maximum monthly subsidy the voucher can provide for rent plus utilities. The standard is set within a federal range of 90% to 110% of HUD's Fair Market Rent for the area, and a PHA can ask HUD for an exception standard in particular cases. The payment standard is not the rent you will pay, and it is not a promise that any home at that price will be approved: the rent must still pass the reasonableness check, and the home must still pass inspection.
Your share, in one paragraph
Your share, the Total Tenant Payment, is generally 30% of your monthly adjusted income. Adjusted income is your gross income minus the deductions the rules allow, such as deductions for dependents and, for elderly or disabled families, an additional family deduction. The full formula, including the 10% of gross income floor, any welfare rent, and the PHA minimum rent of up to $50, is worked through with examples in our rent math guide.
How long does help last?
There is no fixed end date written into a voucher itself. As long as you remain eligible, follow the program rules and your lease, and funding continues, assistance can continue and renew through annual reexamination. That said, a PHA can terminate assistance for serious or repeated lease violations, program violations, or fraud, and it must give you a chance to respond through an informal hearing process first. Losing a home, for example through eviction for nonpayment of your share, can also end assistance, which is why keeping your share paid and your PHA informed matters so much.
Voucher size and bedroom rules
Your voucher states a bedroom size based on your PHA's subsidy standards, which set how many people share a bedroom and when a separate bedroom is allowed. The standards are local and detailed: they cover, for example, children of different ages and sexes, live-in aides, and medical needs supported by documentation. You may rent a larger home than your voucher size if the rent fits within the payment standard for your voucher size and the rent is reasonable, and you may rent a smaller home, but the subsidy is still capped at your voucher size. Ask your PHA for its written subsidy standards before you start searching, because they decide what counts as a suitable home.