The Housing Choice Voucher Program

Federal rules ensure that vouchers are targeted at the families who need them most. Seventy-five percent of new households admitted each year must be “extremely low-income,” with incomes not exceeding 30 percent of the local median or the poverty line, whichever is higher. Other new households may have incomes up to 80 percent of the area median.

Housing agencies may set admissions preferences based on housing need or other criteria. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for voucher assistance.

Once a family receives a voucher, it has at least 60 days to find housing. A family can use a voucher to help pay the rent either for its current unit or for a new unit. In either case, the housing agency must verify that the unit meets federal housing quality standards and that the rent is reasonable compared to market rents for similar units in the area.

A family with a voucher generally must contribute the higher of 30 percent of its income or a “minimum rent” of up to $50 for rent and utilities. The voucher pays the rest of those costs, up to a limit (called a “payment standard”) set by the housing agency.

Each agency has a cap on the number of vouchers it is authorized to administer. An agency’s number of “authorized vouchers” is essentially the sum of the vouchers the agency has been awarded since the start of the voucher program. Each year, Congress provides some new vouchers. Since 2003, new vouchers have been either “tenant-protection” vouchers (which replace either public housing that is demolished or sold or other affordable housing units that lose federal subsidies) or “special purpose” vouchers (which are aimed at particular types of households, such as homeless veterans).

While most vouchers are used in metropolitan areas, approximately 11 percent are used in non-metropolitan areas.

Vouchers sharply reduce homelessness and other hardships, lift more than a million people out of poverty, and give families an opportunity to move to safer, less poor neighborhoods. These effects, in turn, are closely linked to educational, developmental, and health benefits that can improve children’s long-term prospects and reduce costs in other public programs.

In addition, most voucher households that can reasonably be expected to work, do work. In 2014, 66 percent of non-elderly, non-disabled households using vouchers were working or had worked recently, while an additional 7 percent were likely subject to a work requirement under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Moreover, vouchers enable more than 1 million elderly or disabled individuals to afford to live independently.