ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign upward to receive our biggest stories as before long equally they're published.

What is Department 8 and how does it piece of work?

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is a grade of regime rent help. In 2018, upwards of 5 million people across the country lived in a household that used a voucher to assist pay some or all of their hire.

When Congress established Section 8 of the Housing and Community Development Act in 1974, one of the goals was to make sure people earning low wages could find "decent housing and a suitable living environment" outside of public housing units.

Today, people who meet income requirements can utilise to the program to receive a voucher when they get available. If they are approved, selected and and then find an apartment or house with the voucher, their local housing authority starts sending payments direct to landlords.

The payments embrace some or all of the voucher holder'south rent. On average, each household will pay somewhere between thirty% and twoscore% of its income on hire.

We found that proficient information nigh Section eight is not easily available.

We spent some time reporting on how Department 8 is working as part of a series on housing with the nonprofit news organization The Connecticut Mirror. We learned that the process of getting and using a voucher to find housing is nevertheless filled with information gaps.

"One-half the battle is the information piece," said Josh Serrano, a voucher holder in Hartford, Connecticut. He and his colleagues run know-your-rights workshops for potential voucher holders.

"If you don't know the law y'all can't obey the law," said Crystal Carter, who received a voucher through a Connecticut housing authority merely struggled to find housing. She said the companies and landlords she worked with did not always know the Section 8 laws and processes, and that created problems during her housing search.

To create this guide, we spoke with dozens of people who have navigated the voucher process, as well as with holding brokers, landlords, sometime housing authority workers, housing lawyers and housing advocates.

This guide will tell you:

  • How to find out if I should apply for a Department 8 housing voucher
  • How practice I apply for a Section 8 housing voucher
    • Getting on a waitlist
    • Steps to accept while you're on a Section 8 waitlist
    • What to exercise after being canonical for a Section eight housing voucher
  • How practise I find housing with a Section eight housing voucher
    • What to know most the voucher
    • Tips for the housing search
    • How to apply for an apartment or house
    • What can go incorrect
  • Living with a voucher
  • Other Resources

The guide includes links to visit websites. If you lot are non able to access the cyberspace, you tin can visit a local library and type this link into a browser to view the guide online: https://propub.li/section8

How to find out if I should employ for a Section 8 housing voucher

To become Department 8 housing, you will need to apply for a voucher.

Before you employ, you volition need to know:

  • Where you want to live: Each local housing authority has different rules effectually Section 8. Make up one's mind where you want to live so detect the local housing authorities that are in accuse of those neighborhoods. Y'all can observe a listing of all the housing authorities here. Keep in mind: Y'all can apply to housing authorities even if you don't already live in that town. Don't see the town yous are looking for? Endeavor looking for a regional or land housing authority.
  • How much money you lot and your household are making: The program is reserved for people making a certain amount of money compared with the area. Check out the housing authority'southward income requirements. Then, go to the Department of Housing and Urban Evolution's online tool to see whether you — and the people y'all're living with — fit into that category.
  • Immigration condition for you and everyone you'll be living with: At to the lowest degree i person in your household needs to have legal documentation to be living in the U.S. for the household to utilise for a voucher. The nonprofit system Affordable Housing Online has detailed information here.
  • Criminal history for you and everyone y'all'll be living with: All housing government do background checks, but each one has dissimilar rules. Information technology is possible to go canonical for housing if you have a felony or if you lot are on parole. Enquire the specific housing authorities by calling or emailing to see if y'all're still eligible. IMPORTANT: You CANNOT become a voucher if y'all, or someone in your household, is on a lifelong sex offender registry, has been convicted of producing methamphetamine in federal housing or has been evicted within the past three years for drug-related reasons.

How practice I apply for Section viii housing voucher?

The first footstep to applying for Section 8 housing is to tell the housing authority you lot're interested. But, in that location are more people who want vouchers than in that location are vouchers available. Most of the time, you'll exist placed on a waitlist.

Getting on a waitlist:

  • Get an email account. You volition need an electronic mail account to utilize. To create a gratuitous one, sign up for Gmail or Yahoo accounts.
  • Get alerts. You can sign upwardly for services that will email you when housing authorities open waitlists. Affordable Housing Online has a website where you can run into which waitlists are open. The grouping also has a webpage where yous tin can sign upwardly to get email alerts from the state yous're interested in living in. Some housing government have their own alarm systems. If you absolutely know that you just want to live in one neighborhood, discover the housing authority that oversees the expanse and sign up with that housing authority directly.
  • Be flexible. Employ to every bit many waitlists as you can, as long as you can come across yourself living in that neighborhood for at least 12 months. After a year, you can expect into moving while still holding onto your voucher.
  • Apply a dependable mailing address. If you move around a lot, or are homeless, give the housing authorisation the mailing address of a friend or family member who can let you lot know when post arrives for yous. You can also ask local churches and shelters if yous can use their mailing address. If they say yes, check in with them one time a week to see if they've gotten any notices from the housing authorization.
  • Practice not pay money to apply. You never have to pay to apply to a Section 8 waitlist, and there is no way to pay to move up the waitlist once yous're on it. If you're asked to pay, it's more than likely a scam.
  • A doctor's notation can speed up the wait. Some housing regime move y'all up the waitlist if you or someone in your household has a disability or a wellness upshot like asthma that is getting worse because of where you lot're living. If these cases use to yous, inquire a doctor to write a note to the housing authority explaining how new housing will help your status. Get and keep a copy of the note.

Steps to accept while you're on a Section viii waitlist:

Lawyers and former housing authority workers say that beingness on the waitlist doesn't hateful yous should but wait until you lot hear something. They shared a couple of important tips:

  • Take notes and photos. Proceed a written tape of all your communication with the housing authority. You tin use your telephone to take pictures of documents, emails you lot ship or notes you have while having a phone call. Record keeping is important considering there is a lot of staff turnover within housing authorities, lawyers and former employees told u.s..
  • Keep in touch. Respond to whatsoever notices you get in the mail from the housing dominance over phone, e-mail or mail so the housing authority knows you're still interested in staying on the waitlist.
  • Keep applying. As soon as new waitlists in your state open up, apply. Don't look!
  • Join communities online. Bring together Department 8 groups on social media platforms. Tens of thousands of people are in the same position you are, and they have created social networks to support and help one another. Here are some of the more popular nationwide Facebook groups: Public Housing (Section viii) (Voucher Holders) HUD Tenants Group and Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Friends.
  • Exist patient. It can take months or years to get approved depending on demand. Don't give up!
  • Go along everyone updated. Communicate with the housing authorization if there are whatever changes in where you live, how much money yous or someone in your household is making or how many people are in your household (for example, if yous get married or divorced, or adopt or take a child).

What to do after existence approved for a Section 8 housing voucher:

  • Be your ain abet, and ask questions if yous take them. If you are missing information or have questions, y'all tin can telephone call or electronic mail the local housing say-so. It'southward a complicated procedure, and information technology'due south important to speak up for yourself when y'all don't understand something. The housing government as well have walk-in days where you tin can finish by and enquire questions.
  • Hand in the paperwork on fourth dimension. If you miss the deadline, your motion could be delayed.
  • Don't miss the housing authority "briefing." All housing authorities are required to offering in-person briefings to provide you with the information you need to know before you get your voucher. Yous'll get a notice in the post that volition tell you when and where the briefing is taking place. If y'all can't brand the briefing for any reason, be sure to contact your local housing authority. Some housing authorities give you the vouchers the aforementioned 24-hour interval yous receive a conference, and others hand them out a couple days or weeks later.

How do I detect housing with a Department eight housing voucher?

Once you have your voucher in hand, yous should starting time looking for an apartment. Starting time you get the voucher. Here's what a voucher looks like. Yours may be different.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

What to know most the voucher:

  • Check the number of bedrooms, and ask the housing authorisation about the rent. The voucher comes with a limit on how many bedrooms the apartment tin have. The voucher does non come up with a set amount of hire. So, earlier you start your search, yous should talk to your housing authority worker about what the range of rent might be.
  • Summate the toll of gas, electricity and other utilities (similar heat). Nosotros've heard stories of people who ended up with hard-to-pay utility bills considering they didn't consider their cost. If yous're unclear about your utility allowance, arrive touch with the housing potency or a local housing advocate.
  • Yous are responsible for the security deposit. Enquire the property owner or landlord how much the security deposit is while y'all're looking for housing considering you're ultimately responsible for paying it. You can also check whether your state security deposit assistance programs can help embrace the deposit by looking up "deposit assist program" in a search engine similar Google or request your housing authority.
  • Near everyone we talked to said that it is important to document everything. Write everything down, and bring someone with you lot who can help have notes on your search process. You can also have pictures of everything with your phone. Here are the things y'all should write down:

  • The dates, times and places where meetings happen.

  • Names and task titles of everyone you meet.

  • The accost of the apartment or house you lot want to rent, and the type of edifice.

  • IMPORTANT: If you are denied housing, write downwardly the reasons you were turned downward.

  • Look for housing online. HUD compiled a listing of all the apartment buildings it has worked with through Section 8 and put it into a map that you can scroll through. Otherwise, y'all can look through:
  • GoSection8
    • Zillow
    • Facebook Market
    • Socialserve
    • Trulia
    • Rently

How to apply for an apartment or house:

One time you lot've found an apartment or firm that fits your needs, you lot should utilise for a charter.

  • Submit your paperwork to the landlord. Make certain the paperwork is filled out and returned to the housing say-so. You'll get this paperwork, which includes a "asking for tenancy approval," when you get your voucher. Make sure the housing authorization gets the "request for tenancy blessing" and a copy of the charter.
  • Read the lease carefully. Ask questions if you don't understand something. Housing lawyers have told united states these leases can exist complicated, hard to sympathize and can include loopholes that put y'all at a disadvantage. They recommend that you read through the charter alongside a housing authority staff member, housing abet or local lawyer before deciding whether to sign.
  • Proceed inspections in mind. Within a few days or weeks of the charter signing, the housing authority will ready a time to audit the identify to make sure information technology'southward in skilful condition. Once everything passes inspection, you tin move in.

What can go wrong:

  • The fourth dimension limit. From the moment y'all get your briefing, you'll have at to the lowest degree 60 days (it can exist 90 or 120 days, depending on the housing potency) to detect housing. It's normal for people to struggle to notice housing in that time frame, especially if the person is working long hours.
  • If you have trouble finding housing in that fourth dimension, you tin ask the housing dominance for an extension. "Do it earlier rather than later on," said Erin Kemple, the executive director of the Connecticut Off-white Housing Center.
  • The housing authorisation will give you an extension and then long every bit y'all can show them that you've put in try to find housing. Then, write down and take pictures of all the places you lot visit on your housing search and when yous visited them (including the date and time).
  • Housing discrimination. In the 40-plus years that vouchers have been around, inquiry shows that local zoning boards and holding owners have made it hard for people with vouchers to live in certain areas.
  • Some states have responded with laws to address this practice. Equally of December 2019, at that place are xiv states that have passed laws banning landlords from rejecting tenants based on their source of rent income, which includes Department 8 vouchers. If you come across a housing listing that says "No Section 8" in one of these states, report it to the local housing authority and to legal aid or fair housing attorneys in your state.
  • If it feels like the only reason you're Not allowed to apply for an apartment is because you take a voucher, make certain to document it then tell your local housing authority about the incident.

Living with a voucher

Nosotros've heard from people with plenty of feel in the Department 8 process. Overall, they've told us information technology's just like living in other apartments. Simply there are some challenges that come up when living with a voucher that folks regularly brought up.

Here is what you lot need to know near living in Department 8 housing:

  • No matter what, always pay your portion of the hire on time. E'er ask for receipts of your payment, and go along them on file.
  • Go everything in writing. If your landlord reaches out and tells you that you need to pay for a repair, enquire for a written caption. If you don't think you should exist paying what the landlord is asking for, accomplish out to the housing potency, a local housing lawyer or a housing advocate for advice.
  • Moving with a voucher. If you have lived in the aforementioned identify for at least 12 months, you can motion to a different neighborhood or state while keeping your voucher. This is chosen "porting." Y'all must apply. HUD has trainings and forms for porting that you can check out.
  • Unless a family unit breaks up, y'all can't pass along a voucher to somebody else. The voucher can stay inside the household if the person carrying the voucher dies, divorces or is convicted of a crime. You can't laissez passer along vouchers in a will or sell them.

Other Resources:

  • Lists of local, state and federal laws around housing discrimination
  • HUD's detailed guidelines on what income you lot should recollect about when figuring out what your household income is
  • HUD's detailed guidelines on computing rent once you go a voucher (plus some more than details on figuring out your family'south income)
  • A Department 8 guide with extra tips for people with disabilities

Having Trouble With Your Rent, Mortgage or Debts? We Want to Hear From You lot.

This course requires JavaScript to complete.

Powered by CityBase.