Federal grant programs / Department of Housing and Urban Development

Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers (14.871)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$38.6 million
• Grant awards143
• Typical award$211,747
• Awarded in FY 2025$4.2 million
• Size rank1,106 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceDirect payments for specified use

Key findings

• Annual funding fell from $11.3 million in fiscal 2021 to $4.2 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 1106th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 79% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 17 states and territories.

What the program funds

The housing choice voucher program is the federal government's major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments. The participant is free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and is not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects. The program serves the most economically vulnerable families in the country, including families with disabilities, elderly families, formerly homeless veterans, and families with children, through federal assistance voucher payments in the provision of meeting their rental housing needs. HUD regulations merged the former Section 8 Rental Voucher program (14.855) with the former Section 8 Certificate program (14.857). Section 502 of the Public Housing Reform Act states that a purpose of the legislation is "consolidating the voucher and certificate programs for rental assistance under Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (the "USHA") into a single market-driven program that will assist in making tenant-based rental assistance more successful at helping low-income families obtain affordable housing and will increase housing choice for low-income families". The HCVP is administered by local public housing agencies (PHAs) authorized under State law to operate housing programs within an area or jurisdiction. The PHAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the voucher program. The PHA accepts a family’s application for rental assistance, selects the applicant family for admission, and issues the selected family a voucher confirming the family’s eligibility for assistance. The family must then find and lease a dwelling unit suitable to the family’s needs and desires in the private rental market. The PHAs sign Housing Assistant Payment contracts with the landlords, and housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the PHA on behalf of the participating family. The family then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program. Under certain circumstances, if authorized by the PHA, a family may use its voucher to purchase a modest home.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

Applicants are limited to public housing agencies (PHAs). A PHA is defined as any State, county, municipality or other governmental entity or public body (or agency or instrumentality thereof) which is authorized to engage in or assist in the development or operation of housing for very low income families, a Consortia or Regional PHAs; any other nonprofit entity that was administering a Section 8 tenant-based program on October 21, 1998; or, for an area outside the jurisdiction of a PHA administering a voucher program, a private nonprofit entity or a governmental entity or public body that would otherwise lack jurisdiction to administer the program in such area.

What the money can and cannot pay for

Provides housing assistance payments to participating owners on behalf of eligible tenants to provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing for very low-income families at rents they can afford. The PHA calculates the maximum amount of housing assistance allowable. The maximum housing assistance is generally the lesser of the payment standard minus 30% of the family's monthly adjusted income or the gross rent for the unit minus 30% of monthly adjusted income.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

Congress provides renewal funding for housing assistance payments (HAP) and administrative fees through annual appropriations; new vouchers are processes through competitive procedures such Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), and noncompetitively such as tenant protection vouchers (TPVs).

Award range and average, in the agency's words

TBRA Obligations: Lowest: $26,751 Highest: $1,471,569,243 Average: $12,520,290 Total: $26,630,657,217 TBRA Actual Disbursements: Lowest: $11,742, Highest: $1,416,161,279, Average: $11,987,000, Total: $25,496,350,023

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2019: • Contract Renewal Vouchers • HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing • Family Unification Program • Non-Elderly Disabled • Mobility Demonstration • Project-Based Vouchers • Tenant Protection Vouchers

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 81% of the money.

By state

12 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.