What Is the Housing Voucher Program?
The Housing Choice Voucher Program (sometimes referred to as "Section 8"
after the section of the U.S. Housing Act that authorized it) is the largest
federal low-income housing assistance program. Families who are awarded vouchers
use them to help pay the cost of renting housing on the open market. Because
vouchers are provided to particular tenants to live where they choose, they
are often referred to as "tenant-based" assistance. Vouchers can also be used
to help families buy homes.
The voucher program is administered at the federal level by the Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). At the local level, the program is
run by approximately 2,600 state, regional, and local housing agencies, known
collectively as public housing agencies (PHAs). Many of these are independent
public authorities, while others are part of city, county or state governments
and thus are directly under the supervision of elected officials.
The Section 8 program was established in 1974 in the Nixon-Ford Administration.
Major changes to the tenant-based portion of the program were made under legislation
passed in 1984 (during the Reagan Administration) and in 1998. (In 1998, Congress
merged the two previous components of the tenant-based section 8 program -
certificates and vouchers - into a single housing program.)
There are currently 2.1 million housing vouchers. The voucher program is
the only federal housing program serving low-income families that has grown
with the population over the last 20 years. The emergence of vouchers as the
centerpiece of federal low-income housing policy reflects a major shift during
the last 30 years toward more market-based housing subsidies. Previously,
the federal government had focused on supporting the construction of public
housing or on subsidizing affordable private housing with project-based subsidies.
Housing vouchers are not an entitlement benefit. Because of funding limitations,
only about one in four households that are eligible for vouchers receive any
form of federal housing assistance. Most areas have long and growing waiting
lists for vouchers, and many housing agencies have even stopped accepting
new applications because of the size of the backlog.
The need for housing assistance is very great. A HUD analysis of Census data
shows that in 1999 (the last year for which this analysis is available), nearly
five million low-income households who did not receive housing assistance
had "worst case housing needs," which means they either paid more than half
of their income for rent and utilities or lived in severely substandard rental
housing. Most of the low-income families with "worst case" housing needs are
working families. In addition, since housing costs have increased faster than
incomes since 1999, the housing affordability problem is likely to be even
more severe today.
Who Is Eligible for Housing Vouchers?
Income eligibility limits for the voucher program are set as percentages
of the local area median income. (Each year HUD calculates the median income,
for households of different sizes, of every metropolitan area and rural county
in the nation, and makes certain adjustments to these figures directed by
law.) PHAs have substantial flexibility to determine which families they will
serve, and are permitted to establish admission preferences based on household
characteristics (preferences could, for example, favor local residents or
families moving from welfare to work) or on housing needs such as homelessness.
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