Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), Explained

A Housing Choice Voucher is federal rental assistance that a lower-income household uses to rent a home of its choosing from a private landlord. The household generally pays about 30% of its adjusted income toward rent and utilities. A local housing agency pays the landlord the rest each month, up to a limit set for the area. The program is still widely called Section 8, after the section of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 that authorizes it.

The Housing Choice Voucher program is HUD’s largest rental assistance program. More than 2.3 million households held vouchers as of September 30, 2025, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), citing HUD data. This guide covers how vouchers work for renters and landlords, how the subsidy is calculated, and the rules on waitlists, moving, discrimination, and inspections.

Who Runs the Program

HUD funds vouchers and writes the rules, but it does not hand them out. That job belongs to about 2,100 state and local public housing agencies (PHAs), NLIHC reports. Each PHA has a set number of authorized vouchers and gets annual renewal funding based largely on its prior voucher use and costs.

Because the assistance follows the household rather than a building, vouchers are a form of tenant-based rental assistance. PHAs can also attach some of their vouchers to specific buildings as project-based vouchers. In that case the subsidy stays with the unit when a tenant moves out.

Who Qualifies

Federal rules at 24 CFR 982.201 set the income test. Most new voucher holders must be very low income, meaning at or below 50% of area median income (AMI). Some households up to 80% of AMI can qualify under narrower categories, such as families already receiving federal housing assistance.

The program is also deeply targeted. By law, at least 75% of the families a PHA admits from its waiting list each fiscal year must be extremely low income: at or below 30% of AMI or the federal poverty guideline, whichever is higher. HUD data reported by NLIHC show that in 2023, 77% of voucher households were extremely low income, 35% had an elderly head of household, and 26% included a person with a disability.

Income limits vary by area and household size. To find the limits where you live, use HUD’s income limits lookup on the HUD User website. For a wider look at eligibility across programs, see Who Qualifies for Affordable Housing.

How the Subsidy Is Calculated

What the tenant pays

A household’s required contribution is its total tenant payment (TTP). Under 24 CFR 5.628, TTP is the highest of:

• 30% of monthly adjusted income (income after deductions for dependents, elderly or disabled members, and certain medical and child care costs)
• 10% of monthly gross income
• A designated welfare rent, where one applies
• The PHA’s minimum rent, if it has one

For most households, the 30% figure controls. TTP covers rent and utilities together. When a tenant pays utilities directly, the PHA credits a utility allowance so the household is not charged twice.

What the voucher pays

The PHA’s monthly payment to the landlord is capped by the payment standard, a dollar amount for each bedroom size. A PHA can set its payment standard anywhere from 90% to 110% of HUD’s fair market rent (FMR) without HUD approval. FMRs estimate the 40th percentile gross rent, meaning rent plus utilities, for standard-quality units in an area. HUD publishes them every year, effective at the start of the federal fiscal year, generally October 1.

The voucher pays the lower of two amounts: the payment standard minus TTP, or the unit’s gross rent minus TTP. If a household picks a unit whose gross rent exceeds the payment standard, it pays the difference on top of its TTP. One safeguard applies at move-in: under 24 CFR 982.508, a household’s share cannot exceed 40% of its adjusted monthly income when it first leases a unit.

A worked example

Suppose a household has an adjusted monthly income of $2,000, so its TTP is $600. Suppose the PHA’s payment standard for a two-bedroom is $1,500. All figures here are invented for illustration.

This is why payment standards matter. When they lag local rents, voucher holders are pushed toward a shrinking set of cheaper units.

Exception and Small Area payment standards

Rents can differ sharply between neighborhoods in the same metro area. PHAs have several tools to adjust:

• Exception payment standards above 110% of FMR, for part or all of an area. Under a 2024 rule implementing the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA), a PHA can go up to 120% by notifying HUD if it meets certain conditions, such as fewer than 75% of recently issued vouchers resulting in a lease.
• Small Area Fair Market Rents, which set rents by ZIP code instead of for a whole metro area. NLIHC reports that PHAs in 65 metro areas, holding about 45% of all voucher households, are required to use them. Other PHAs may adopt them voluntarily.
• Reasonable accommodation. A PHA can approve a payment standard up to 120% of FMR for a household member with a disability who needs a particular unit, and can ask HUD for more.

Waitlists and Lotteries

Vouchers are not an entitlement. Congress decides each year how much to spend, and far more households qualify than receive help. NLIHC reports that only about one in four households eligible for federal rental assistance receives any. That shortage is what creates the waitlist.

Under 24 CFR 982.206, a PHA may close its list when it has enough applicants for the funding it expects. When it reopens, it must give public notice saying where and when to apply.

PHAs may adopt local preferences, for example for people experiencing homelessness, local residents, or working families. Among applicants with the same preference, a PHA must choose either by date and time of application or by a drawing or other random method. That is why some agencies run lotteries, using a random draw to decide who joins the list or in what order.

Waits are long. An analysis of 2020 HUD data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, reported by NLIHC, found that households that received vouchers had waited an average of about 28 months. State averages varied widely: about nine months in Nebraska and West Virginia, and five years in Alabama.

Using a Voucher: The Search and the Lease

Once a household reaches the top of the list and is found eligible, the PHA issues a voucher. Under 24 CFR 982.303, the initial search period must be at least 60 days. PHAs may grant extensions and must do so when a household needs more time as a reasonable accommodation for a disability.

The household then looks for a unit and asks the landlord to participate. The typical sequence:

1. The landlord screens the tenant. HUD rules make the owner, not the PHA, responsible for screening and selecting tenants. Owners may consider rental and utility payment history, care of past units, and criminal activity that threatens others.
2. The PHA checks the rent. It cannot approve a lease until it finds the rent “reasonable” compared with similar unassisted units nearby.
3. The PHA inspects the unit (see below).
4. Everyone signs. The tenant and landlord sign a lease that must include HUD’s tenancy addendum word for word. The landlord and PHA sign a housing assistance payments contract, which runs for the same term as the lease.
5. Payments begin. The PHA pays its share directly to the landlord. The tenant pays the landlord its own share.

What landlords should know

For owners, a voucher brings a monthly payment from a public agency for its share of the rent, along with paperwork, inspections, and rent limits. Before any rent increase, the PHA must confirm the new rent is still reasonable. When a household’s income drops, the PHA’s share generally rises, so the owner’s total rent stays the same.

Moving With a Voucher: Portability

A voucher is not tied to one apartment or one city. Under 24 CFR 982.353, a household can generally use its voucher anywhere in the PHA’s jurisdiction or move to the area of any other PHA in the country that runs the program. This is called portability.

There is one main restriction. If neither the head of household nor spouse lived in the PHA’s area when they applied, the PHA can require the family to stay in its jurisdiction for the first 12 months. That restriction does not apply to survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking who need to move for safety.

The receiving PHA either absorbs the voucher into its own program or bills the original PHA. If billing would raise costs and the original PHA lacks funds, it may deny the move.

Source-of-Income Protections

The biggest practical hurdle for many voucher holders is finding a landlord who will accept one. No federal law bars most private landlords from refusing vouchers.

There are important exceptions:

• Federally financed properties. Owners of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties must agree not to refuse to lease to a voucher holder because of the voucher. NLIHC notes that properties assisted by the HOME program and the national Housing Trust Fund carry the same obligation.
• State and local laws. A growing number of states, counties, and cities prohibit source-of-income discrimination, which makes it illegal to turn away a renter because part of the rent comes from a voucher. The Poverty & Race Research Action Council keeps a running list, last updated in March 2026.

Supporters argue these laws widen housing choices and help more vouchers get used. Opponents, often property owners, argue that participation should stay voluntary because the program brings inspections, paperwork, and rent limits. NLIHC says these state and local laws are generally not rigorously enforced. For more on current protections, see Fair Housing Today.

Inspections and Housing Quality

Every voucher unit must meet federal housing quality standards. By law, the PHA must inspect a unit before payments begin. HOTMA gives PHAs two optional exceptions. Payments can start while the owner fixes problems that are not life-threatening. A PHA can also rely on a comparable inspection done in the past 24 months under another program, such as tax-credit housing.

After move-in, PHAs must inspect each unit at least every two years, or every three years for small rural agencies. Under 24 CFR 982.404, life-threatening deficiencies must be fixed within 24 hours and other deficiencies within 30 days or another reasonable period the PHA sets. If an owner does not make repairs in time, the PHA must stop its payments, a step called abatement. If the unit still does not pass, the PHA must end the contract and issue the family a voucher to move.

HUD is replacing the older Housing Quality Standards with its National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE). In a September 30, 2025 notice, HUD extended the deadline for voucher programs to comply with NSPIRE to February 1, 2027. It was the third extension of that deadline.

Debates and What Is Changing

Vouchers have had bipartisan support for decades, but several questions remain open as of October 2026:

• Funding. Because renewal funding is set annually, shortfalls can force PHAs to stop issuing vouchers when families leave. Advocates such as NLIHC urge Congress to fully fund the renewal of every voucher in use. The administration’s FY 2026 budget instead proposed folding vouchers and other HUD rental aid into a single state block grant with deep cuts. NLIHC reports that neither the House nor the Senate spending bill adopted that plan, and the FY 2026 appropriations law, enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, again funded voucher renewals through PHAs.
• Work requirements and time limits. In March 2026, HUD proposed a rule that would let PHAs and some owners require work-eligible adults to take part in work activities, such as a job, job training, or a job search, for up to 40 hours a week. It would also allow time limits of no less than two years for households that are not elderly or disabled. Supporters say this would encourage self-sufficiency and free up assistance for families on waitlists. Critics warn it could cost working-poor families their housing. The comment period closed May 1, 2026. As of October 1, 2026, HUD had not published a final rule.

Related programs build on the voucher model, including HUD-VASH for homeless veterans and the Family Self-Sufficiency program.

The Bottom Line

A Housing Choice Voucher turns a private apartment into affordable housing by having a public agency cover the gap between about 30% of a household’s income and the rent, up to a local payment standard. It gives households real choice and mobility. But it reaches only a fraction of eligible families, depends on landlords willing to participate, and depends on annual federal funding, which explains both its popularity and its long waiting lists.