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How Housing Is Made Available

Housing funded by the federal government is available in several different ways. Be mindful of the fact that there may be long waiting lists for all of these types of programs. It would be beneficial for your clients to apply to as many as possible to increase their options.

  • The first and probably best known, is through the Public Housing Authorities (PHA) in cities and towns across the country. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides direct funding to regional PHAs to build and administer housing developments of low-income housing for people with income of 30% or less of the local Area’s Median Income (AMI). The local PHA can use these funds (pending HUD approval) to manage units that are located in a single building/development in high concentrations as well as funding specific units in various locations. The latter is referred to as ‘scattered site’ units. These are generally units located in very small residential buildings.
  • HUD also funds, either through the local PHA or directly to a developer, low-income units in mixed-income developments. The funding is often a combination of grants, low-income mortgages and long-term project-based subsidies. A project-based subsidy is a rent reduction that is attached to a specific unit and not to a resident. Only those individuals who meet the HUD/PHA financial requirements would be eligible for those units.
  • Finally, housing is available through the HUD-funded, PHA administered rental subsidy program, Housing Choice (formerly known as the Section 8 Program). This is often referred to as a “mobile voucher.” These vouchers are issued to the applicant based on total family income, assets and housing needs such as bedroom size. The voucher is issued to the family, who must then locate appropriate housing that is building and safety code compliant, the appropriate size and the approved rent level.

Assistance to Find Housing

It is important to remember that HUD mandates that PHAs which administer rental vouchers provide assistance to persons with disabilities to find accessible housing. HUD does not define what is considered appropriate assistance. The assistance could be newspaper listings, a list of property owners that the PHA regularly deals with, a detailed database system, or networking/contracting with non-profit agencies to assist. A person with a HUD rental voucher can also use it for home ownership if the local PHA has opted to provide that service.

Reasonable Accommodation with Rental Voucher

For persons with disabilities that live within a PHA area that does not offer the Section 8 homeownership option, they can request a Sec. 504 Reasonable Accommodation to use their rental voucher for this purpose. Reasonable accommodations will be discussed in the fair housing section below.

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