Public Housing Agency (PHA)

What Is a Public Housing Agency?

A public housing agency (PHA) is the local public entity that delivers HUD’s two largest rental assistance programs. Federal law (42 U.S.C. § 1437a) defines it as any state, county, municipality, or other governmental entity or public body authorized to engage in or assist in the development or operation of public housing. In practice most are called “housing authorities.” Some cover a single city, others a county or region, and a few are state agencies.

PHAs are created under state law but funded largely by the federal government. That gives them a dual identity: a local body with its own board, operating mostly under HUD’s rules.

How It Works

A PHA may run one or both of these programs:

• Public housing. The agency owns and manages apartment developments. NLIHC’s 2026 guide, citing HUD’s dashboard, counts 865,449 public housing units in 6,194 developments as of December 1, 2025.
• Housing Choice Vouchers. The agency pays part of the rent to private landlords on behalf of eligible households. NLIHC reports that about 925 of the roughly 2,100 voucher agencies run vouchers only and have no public housing.

In both, the PHA takes applications, maintains the waitlist, verifies income, applies any local preferences, and computes the household’s rent. The basic federal rule is the highest of 30% of monthly adjusted income, 10% of monthly income, or a welfare rent where one applies, subject to a minimum rent. Voucher agencies also set payment standards and inspect units.

Every PHA must submit a five-year plan to HUD stating its mission and goals. Its board must consult a resident advisory board and hold a public hearing. Most agencies must also file an annual plan. Agencies with 550 or fewer combined public housing units and vouchers are exempt from it if they are not rated as troubled and have not failed HUD’s voucher management assessment in the past year. Some PHAs are also shifting public housing to Section 8 contracts through the Rental Assistance Demonstration, or using mixed-finance deals that pair public housing with private capital.

PHA vs. Housing Finance Agency

The two are easy to confuse. A PHA directly operates rental assistance for very low- and low-income households. A housing finance agency is usually a statewide body that finances development, allocates Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and issues housing bonds. A household seeking help paying rent applies to its PHA. A developer seeking financing goes to the HFA.

Criticisms and Limitations

PHAs can only serve as many households as federal funding allows. NLIHC reports that PHAs have faced federal funding shortfalls for decades, and that about 30% of public housing homes were in developments that failed their most recent physical inspection, according to a 2024 study by NLIHC and the research group PAHRC. Demand far exceeds supply, and NLIHC notes that in many large cities households can stay on waiting lists for years, even decades.