How to Apply for Housing Assistance

Housing assistance is available to help people with low and moderate incomes, including the elderly and the disabled. The federal government offers housing assistance through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD also contracts with state and local agencies to make sure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Benefits Statement
• Calculators
• Telephones
• Pay Stub
• Felt-tip Pens
• File Folders
• Pads Of Paper
• Personal Organizers
• Calculators

1. Contact the local HUD office listed in the government section of the phone book. You will be directed to a local housing authority office.

2. Call for an appointment. Ask whether you will need to bring in any information or documentation such as pay stubs or benefits statements.

3. Go in and fill out an assistance application. You'll be required to answer questions about who will be living with you, your income and any special needs.

4. Calculate how much housing assistance programs will allow you to pay for rent. The maximum housing assistance is determined as follows: HUD awards the lesser of the payment standard minus 30% of household monthly adjusted income or the gross rent minus 30% of monthly adjusted income.

5. Determine whether your family size and income make you eligible for rent subsidy or other housing assistance.

6. Fill out an application for Section 8, a rent subsidy, if you are eligible. The housing authority office will supply the application if you meet the requirements.

7. Ask the office to provide a list of affordable housing properties in your area. Most of these government-subsidized housing units fall under Section 8.

8. Find out which properties fall under the "rental certificate program" and which fall under the "rental voucher program." These are both Section 8 housing programs.

9. Contact the landlords or managers of these properties to arrange a walk-through.

Tips & Warnings

• Eligibility requirements state that the family's income may not exceed 50 percent of the median income for the county or metropolitan area. Local housing authority offices can provide the area's income limits.
• Be prepared to document your application with a paycheck stub, tax return and birth certificate.
• Under the certificate program, HUD sets the level of rent. Each tenant pays only 30 percent of his or her income for rent and utilities. In the rental voucher program, owners and managers set the rent, which may be higher or lower than HUD's payment standard; HUD provides families with a set level of assistance and the percentage of income the family pays may be more or less than 30 percent.
• Housing authority officials can provide you with information on state or local housing assistance; state and local subsidy programs are available in many areas.
• Don't count on immediate assistance if you don't fall under preferential guidelines. Preference is given to people who are currently homeless or living in substandard housing, are paying more than half their income on rent or have been involuntarily displaced.

Resources

• Housing Choice Vouchers Fact Sheet

[ladyleo07]

on 1/24/2009 Hi, I am looking for any information on how to apply for housing assistance (low-income) housing if any one have any information please send it to me I have a one year old daughter. And I come to the library every day with her just to find any help on applying for housing assistance.

[ryansway]

on 10/7/2008 i am a katrina evacuee and i need information on how to apply for housing. i was promised a trailer by fema in 2007 but was denied due to hurricane season. i've lived in a hotel paying my own rent of $1000.00 per month and the attended college in atlanta. now i'm back in new orleans living with family and there is no room here for me. i'm not on their lease. if there is someone who can help me e-mail me @ [e-mail] thanks

[cber]

on 9/19/2008 Our mom was living up towards the bay are with one of our sisters helping her out and now she moved down here in the Antelope Valley area of California but anyway when she was up there she applied for government assistance with housing so what I would like to know is can she use all of that information work she did to the department down so in short can or she just transfer it, and this is through HUD

[cber]

on 9/19/2008 Our mom was living up towards the bay are with one of our sisters helping her out and now she moved down here in the Antelope Valley area of California but anyway when she was up there she applied for government assistance with housing so what I would like to know is can she use all of that information work she did to the department down so in short can or she just transfer it

[lovly2008]

on 9/1/2008 Housing certificates (Sec. 8) are severly limited and are usually chosen by lottery. You usually have to wait until these lotteries are advertised. Your application may or may not be chosen, as in a lottery. If your application is chosen, you will be assigned a number which could be in the single digits or the thousands. You can only discuss your application when your number comes up which may take several years. If you have had a Sec.8 before and lost it for any reason, you will more than likely be denied. The whole process is not as easy nor available as this article makes it seem.