Total Tenant Payment (TTP)

What Is Total Tenant Payment?

Total tenant payment (TTP) is HUD’s term for the household’s share of housing costs in its main rental assistance programs: the Housing Choice Voucher Program, public housing, and project-based Section 8. The subsidy then fills the gap between the TTP and the cost of the home, within program limits.

TTP covers rent and utilities together. That is why it works hand in hand with the utility allowance.

How TTP Is Calculated

Under federal regulations, TTP is the highest of these amounts, rounded to the nearest dollar:

• 30% of the family’s monthly adjusted income
• 10% of the family’s monthly income
• Where a welfare agency designates part of a family’s assistance payment for housing costs, that designated amount
• The minimum rent set by the public housing agency: up to $50 in public housing and the voucher program, and $25 in other Section 8 programs

Public housing adds one more comparison, an alternative rent for families whose incomes have risen above the program’s limit.

Adjusted income is annual income minus required deductions. The regulation sets base amounts of $480 per dependent and $525 for an elderly or disabled family, which HUD adjusts each year for inflation. For 2026 the published amounts are $500 and $550. Agencies and owners that have not yet put HUD’s updated income rules into effect do not use the adjusted amounts.

The regulation also deducts unreimbursed medical and disability-related expenses above 10% of annual income for eligible households, and reasonable child care costs that allow a family member to work or study. Agencies must exempt families from the minimum rent in defined hardships, such as job loss or a death in the family.

How TTP Is Used

• Vouchers: The housing assistance payment equals the lower of the payment standard minus TTP, or the gross rent minus TTP. A family that picks a home with a gross rent above the payment standard pays the extra on top of its TTP.
• Project-based Section 8: The tenant’s rent to the owner is TTP minus any utility allowance. If the allowance exceeds TTP, the difference is paid as a utility reimbursement.

Example

Suppose a family’s adjusted income is $28,800 a year, or $2,400 a month, and its gross monthly income is $2,600. Thirty percent of $2,400 is $720; 10% of $2,600 is $260. The TTP is $720, the higher figure. If the family rents with a voucher where the gross rent is $1,300 and the payment standard is $1,400, the agency pays $1,300 minus $720, or $580. If the utility allowance is $120, the family pays $600 directly to the landlord and uses the rest of its $720 share for utilities.

Criticisms and Limitations

Because TTP rises with income, each extra dollar of adjusted income generally raises a household’s payment by about 30 cents. MDRC, the research organization HUD hired to test alternative rent rules, summarizes the trade-off this way: tying rent to income shields most tenants from rents they cannot manage, but it may also discourage efforts to raise earnings, and it is complicated and costly to administer.