The Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as "Section 8 Housing," is a federal program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe housing in the private market.

Participants find their own housing, selecting from available homes, townhouses and apartments. This is not "the projects."

While the money for the program comes primarily from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), HUD does not administer voucher programs. Section 8 voucher programs are administered by local public housing agencies.

Public Housing Authorities do not own Section 8 housing units. The recipient of a housing voucher is responsible for finding a suitable house or apartment where the owner agrees to rent under the program. Once a voucher is in hand, this is not usually very difficult to do. Many landlords are happy to participate.

When a voucher holder selects a housing unit, and the local housing agency has approved the unit and lease, the participant signs a lease with the landlord for at least one year. The tenant may be required to pay a security deposit to the landlord. After the first year the landlord may initiate a new lease or allow the resident to remain in the unit on a month-to-month lease.

The Public Housing Agency determines the amount of voucher funds available to each individual or family according to local housing market standards. The PHA pays allotted voucher funds directly to the landlord on behalf of the tenant, and the voucher recipient is expected to pay 30% of his or her monthly adjusted gross income for rent and utilities. If the rent for a unit exceeds what the housing authority has set as standard, the voucher holder pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program.

Section 8 Voucher Eligibility

An individual's or a family's eligibility for a housing voucher is determined by the local Public Housing Agency based on total annual gross income and family size. In general, income may not exceed 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan area in which the applicant or family wants to live.

Median income levels are published by HUD and vary by location. The Public Housing Agency serving your community can provide you with the income limits for your area and family size. Look in the Blue Pages of your telephone book for local PHA telephone numbers.

Eligibility is limited to US citizens and specified categories of non-citizens who have eligible immigration status.

Section 8 housing is a very popular program. By law, every Housing Agency must provide 75% of its vouchers to applicants whose incomes are under 30% of the median income of the area. Median income levels are published by HUD and vary by location. The PHA serving your community can provide you with the income limits for your area and family size. Housing authorities may also give a preference to a family who is (1) homeless or living in substandard housing, (2) paying more than 50% of its income for rent, or (3) involuntarily displaced. This means that some very low income applicants may move to the head of the line ahead of applicants with slightly larger incomes.

This also means that there are often very long waiting lists for the Section 8 housing voucher program. In fact, a housing agency may close its waiting list when it has more families on the list than can be assisted in the near future. It is not unusual for waiting lists in some metropolitan areas to be several years.