Housing Department

What are tenant-based vouchers?

Tenant-based vouchers increase affordable housing choices for very low-income families. Families with a tenant-based voucher choose and lease safe, decent, and affordable privately-owned rental housing.

What families are eligible to apply for tenant-based vouchers?

Very low-income families (i.e. families with incomes below 50% of area median income) and a few specific categories of families with incomes up to 80% of the area median income. These include families that are already assisted under the 1937 U.S. Housing Act, such as families physically displaced by public housing demolition and owners opting out of project-based section 8 housing assistance payments (HAP) contacts. (HUD determines median income levels for each area annually.)

How does a PHA determine if a family is income eligible?

The PHA compares the family’s annual (gross) income with the HUD established very low-income limit for the area. The family’s gross income cannot exceed this limit.

How do families obtain tenant-based vouchers?

Families apply at their local public housing agency (PHA) that administers this program. When an eligible family comes to the top of the PHA’s housing choice voucher waiting list, the PHA issues a housing choice voucher to the family.

How does a family obtain an apartment once they have a voucher?

It is the responsibility of a family to find a unit that meets their needs. If the family finds a unit that meets the housing quality standards, the rent is reasonable, and the unit meets other program requirements, the PHA executes a HAP contract with the property owner. This contract authorizes the PHA to make subsidy payments on behalf of the family. If the family moves out of the unit, the contract with the owner ends and the family can move with continued assistance to another unit.

How much rent do vouchers cover?

The PHA pays the owner the difference between 30 percent of adjusted family income and a PHA determined payment standard or the gross rent for the unit, whichever is lower. The family may choose a unit with a higher rent than the payment standard and pay the owner the difference.

What regulations cover this program?

Regulations are found at – www.hud.gov

 (The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988)

It is Illegal to Discriminate Against Any Person Because of Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Handicap, Familial Status, or National Origin