Section 8 housing how does it work

Families who receive vouchers use them to subsidize their rents in private market apartments. Once an eligible family receives an available voucher, the family must find an eligible unit. The cap set by the PHA is called the payment standard. Once a family finds an eligible unit, the family signs a contract with HUD, and both HUD and the family sign contracts with the landlord. See box below for an example.

First, a PHA sets a payment standard. The family can then go out to the rental market and find an apartment. Once a family is using a voucher, the family can retain the voucher as long as the PHA has adequate funding for it and the family complies with PHA and program requirements. If a family wants to move, the tenant-based voucher can move with the family. Once the family moves to a new area, the two PHAs the PHA that originally issued the voucher and the PHA that administers vouchers in the new area negotiate regarding who will continue to administer the voucher.

The voucher program does not contain any mandatory time limits. Families exit the program in one of three ways: their own choice, non-compliance with program rules including non-payment of rent , or if they no longer qualify for a subsidy.

At that point the HAP payment will be zero and the family will no longer receive any subsidy. Unlike the project-based Section 8 program, the majority of households receiving vouchers are headed by a person who is not elderly and not disabled. Vouchers, like Section 8 existing housing certificates, can be project-based.

Each of those set-aside units will receive voucher assistance as long as a family that is eligible for a voucher lives there.

Project-based vouchers are portable; after one year, a family with a project-based voucher can convert to a tenant-based voucher and then move, as long as a tenant-based voucher is available. Another type of voucher, called a tenant protection voucher, is given to families that were already receiving assistance through another HUD housing program, before being displaced. Examples of instances when families receive tenant-protection vouchers include when public housing is demolished or when a landlord has terminated a Section 8 project-based rental assistance contract.

Families that risk being displaced from project-based Section 8 units are eligible to receive a special form of tenant-protection voucher, called an enhanced voucher.

The "enhanced" feature of the voucher allows the maximum value of the voucher to grow to be equal to the new rent charged in the property, as long as it is reasonable in the market, even if it is higher than the PHA's payment standard. They are designed to allow families to stay in their homes.

If the family chooses to move, then the enhanced feature is lost and the voucher becomes subject to the PHA's normal payment standard. The voucher program also has several special programs or uses.

These include family unification vouchers, vouchers for homeless veterans, and vouchers used for homeownership. Family unification vouchers are given to families for whom the lack of adequate housing is a primary factor in the separation, or threat of imminent separation, of children from their families or in preventing the reunification of the children with their families.

Beginning in , through collaboration between HUD and the VA, Section 8 vouchers have been made available for use by homeless veterans with severe psychiatric or substance abuse disorders.

While there are no specifically authorized "homeownership vouchers," since certain families have been eligible to use their vouchers to help pay for the monthly costs associated with homeownership. Eligible families must work full-time or be elderly or disabled, be first-time homebuyers, and agree to complete first-time homebuyer counseling. PHAs can decide whether to run a homeownership program and an increasing number of PHAs are choosing to do so.

According to HUD's website, nearly 13, families have closed on homes using vouchers. The purpose of the program is to promote coordination between the voucher program and other private and public resources to enable families on public assistance to achieve economic self-sufficiency.

Families who participate in the program sign five-year contracts in which they agree to work toward leaving public assistance. While in the program, families can increase their incomes without increasing the amount they contribute toward rent.

The difference between what the family paid in rent before joining the program and what they would owe as their income increases is deposited into an escrow account that the family can access upon completion of the contract.

For example:. PHAs receive funding for FSS coordinators, who help families with vouchers connect with services, including job training, child care, transportation and education. In , HUD funded the salaries of over 1, FSS coordinators in the voucher program, serving nearly 48, enrolled families. The Moving to Work Demonstration, authorized in P. The goals were to reduce federal costs, provide work incentives to families, and expand housing choice.

MTW allows participating PHAs greater flexibility in determining how to use federal Section 8 voucher and Public Housing funds by allowing them to blend funding sources and experiment with rent rules, with the constraint that they had to continue to serve approximately the same number of households.

It also permits them to seek exemption from most Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher program rules. The existing MTW program, while called a demonstration, was not implemented in a way that would allow it to be effectively evaluated. Therefore, there is not sufficient information about different reforms adopted by MTW agencies to evaluate their effectiveness.

Agencies participating in MTW have used the flexibility it provides differently. Some have made minor changes to their existing Section 8 voucher and public housing programs, such as limiting reporting requirements; others have implemented full funding fungibility between their public housing and voucher programs and significantly altered their eligibility and rent policies.

Some have adopted time limit and work requirement policies similar to those enacted in the welfare reform law. The local flexibility and independence permitted under MTW appears to allow strong, creative [P]HAs to experiment with innovative solutions to local challenges, and to be more responsive to local conditions and priorities than is often possible where federal program requirements limit the opportunity for variation.

But allowing local variation poses risks as well as provides potential benefits. Under MTW, some [P]HAs, for instance, made mistakes that reduced the resources available to address low-income housing needs, and some implemented changes that disadvantaged particular groups of needy households currently served under federal program rules.

Moreover, some may object to the likelihood that allowing significant variation across [P]HAs inevitably results in some loss of consistency across communities. MTO combined housing counseling and services with tenant-based vouchers to help very low-income families with children move to areas with low concentrations of poverty.

The experimental demonstration was designed to test the premise that changes in an individual's neighborhood environment can change his or her life chances. Participating families were selected between and and followed for at least 10 years. Interim results have found that families who moved to lower-poverty areas had some improvements in housing quality, neighborhood conditions, safety, and adult health. Mixed effects were found on youth health, delinquency, and engagement in risky behavior: girls demonstrated positive effects from the move to a lower-poverty neighborhood; boys showed negative effects.

No impacts were found on child achievement or schooling or adult employment, earnings, or receipt of public assistance. The combined Section 8 programs are the largest direct housing assistance program for low-income families. That commitment has led to some successes. More than three million families are able to obtain safe and decent housing through the program, at a cost to the family that is considered affordable.

However, these successes come at a high cost to the federal government. Given current budget deficit levels, Congress has begun to reevaluate whether the cost of the Section 8 programs, particularly the voucher program, are worth their benefits.

Proposals to reform the program abound, and whether the current Section 8 programs are maintained largely in their current form, changed substantially, or eliminated altogether are questions currently facing Congress. PHAs are state-chartered, quasi-governmental bodies that administer public housing and Section 8 vouchers. HUD uses a relative measure of income for determining benefits and eligibility for Section 8.

Housing Quality Standards HQS are minimum standards set by HUD that set acceptable conditions for interior living space, building exterior, heating and plumbing systems, and general health and safety. The feature of a voucher that permits a family to move from one jurisdiction to another while retaining their assistance is referred to as portability.

The administration of portability has proven to be complicated for PHAs. In some cases, the originating PHA is billed for the cost of the family's voucher by the receiving PHA; in other cases, the receiving PHA transitions the new family onto one if its vouchers and the original voucher reverts to the originating PHA.

When the voucher holder finds a unit that it wishes to occupy and reaches an agreement with the landlord over the lease terms, the PHA must inspect the dwelling and determine that the rent requested is reasonable. The PHA determines a payment standard that is the amount generally needed to rent a moderately-priced dwelling unit in the local housing market and that is used to calculate the amount of housing assistance a family will receive.

However the payment standard does not limit and does not affect the amount of rent a landlord may charge or the family may pay. A family which receives a housing voucher can select a unit with a rent that is below or above the payment standard. By law, whenever a family moves to a new unit where the rent exceeds the payment standard, the family may not pay more than 40 percent of its adjusted monthly income for rent.

The rent subsidy The PHA calculates the maximum amount of housing assistance allowable. Can I move and continue to receive housing choice voucher assistance? A family's housing needs change over time with changes in family size, job locations, and for other reasons. The housing choice voucher program is designed to allow families to move without the loss of housing assistance. Moves are permissible as long as the family notifies the PHA ahead of time, terminates its existing lease within the lease provisions, and finds acceptable alternate housing.

Under the voucher program, new voucher-holders may choose a unit anywhere in the United States if the family lived in the jurisdiction of the PHA issuing the voucher when the family applied for assistance.

Those new voucher-holders not living in the jurisdiction of the PHA at the time the family applied for housing assistance must initially lease a unit within that jurisdiction for the first twelve months of assistance. A family that wishes to move to another PHA's jurisdiction must consult with the PHA that currently administers its housing assistance to verify the procedures for moving.

Roles - the tenant, the landlord, the housing agency and HUD Once a PHA approves an eligible family's housing unit, the family and the landlord sign a lease and, at the same time, the landlord and the PHA sign a housing assistance payments contract that runs for the same term as the lease. This means that everyone -- tenant, landlord and PHA -- has obligations and responsibilities under the voucher program. Tenant's Obligations: When a family selects a housing unit, and the PHA approves the unit and lease, the family 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 family to remain in the unit on a month-to-month lease.

When the family is settled in a new home, the family is expected to comply with the lease and the program requirements, pay its share of rent on time, maintain the unit in good condition and notify the PHA of any changes in income or family composition. Landlord's Obligations: The role of the landlord in the voucher program is to provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing to a tenant at a reasonable rent. The dwelling unit must pass the program's housing quality standards and be maintained up to those standards as long as the owner receives housing assistance payments.

In addition, the landlord is expected to provide the services agreed to as part of the lease signed with the tenant and the contract signed with the PHA. The PHA provides a family with the housing assistance that enables the family to seek out suitable housing and the PHA enters into a contract with the landlord to provide housing assistance payments on behalf of the family. If the landlord fails to meet the owner's obligations under the lease, the PHA has the right to terminate assistance payments.

The PHA must reexamine the family's income and composition at least annually and must inspect each unit at least annually to ensure that it meets minimum housing quality standards. As long as the modifications you need are reasonable, landlords must allow them. You may end up paying a little less if you qualify for credits related to your disability or medical expenses.

The only thing you have to do is keep your income, family information, and contact information up-to-date with your local Public Housing Authority. Once a year, the housing authority will inspect your apartment to make sure that it continues to be in good condition.

The Section 8 program will pay less. That means that if you get a job, your rent might not go up at all for the first year after you start working. The EID is described in detail later in this article.

With project-based housing, the local housing authority has contracted directly with the owner of a housing unit to make it available for people in the Section 8 program to live in.

When one of these privately-owned apartments is empty, the housing authority will offer it to someone that is waiting for Section 8 housing. If you have a disability, you may also qualify for the Earned Income Disregard, described in detail later in this article. The two biggest differences between project-based housing and the Housing Choice Voucher Program are:. An important part of the project-based Section 8 program is that many local housing authorities will save some of their project-based apartments specifically for people with disabilities, veterans, and other people in certain situations.

The Section 8 Homeownership Voucher Program is a program that some Public Housing Authorities offer that allows you to use the money from a Section 8 voucher to buy a home or meet monthly homeownership expenses instead of paying rent. The amount of money that Section 8 will provide for your home will be the same as the amount you would have received for a rental.

Read the DB page on Section 8 eligibility and application so you know how to get Section 8. If you already have a voucher, check with your local housing authority and make sure that you can use your voucher for homeownership. Most of the eligibility requirements are exactly the same as for the standard Section 8 voucher program, but there are a few additional requirements:. Note that if you or somebody in your family has a disability, you may be more likely to be allowed to use your Section 8 voucher for homeownership if having your own home is considered a necessary reasonable accommodation.

When you have a voucher that you can use for homeownership, look for housing to buy.