Government-Assisted Housing: The Basics

If you are a low-income person or household and you are looking for affordable rental housing in your area, you may want to apply for government-assisted housing. The federal government funds most government-assisted housing programs. They have many rules about who can and can’t live there, including a lot of rules about how a criminal record affects your ability to live there (read about those rules and exclusions on PG. 357). Government-assisted housing is designed for low-income people.

For some government-assisted housing programs, the government runs the housing facilities and EVERYTHING about the housing application process. For other federally assisted housing programs, the government works with private companies or private owners/landlords who run their own facilities and have their own separate application process from the government.

Government-assisted housing could be short-term, long-term, an apartment, a house, a shelter, or a transitional housing program with services.

Why would I be interested in living in government-assisted housing?

Government-assisted housing is a great option for many low-income people and households. While they have many rules about who can and cannot live there, it provides you with an opportunity to have affordable rental housing in your area. See PG. 354 below for the resources that can help you find government-assisted housing in your area. One major down-side is that government-assisted housing programs tend to have very long wait-lists, so it is good to sign up early and check back often.

How can I find government-assisted housing?

Try the following resources to find government-assisted housing:

    YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY (PHA), which runs some of the biggest government-assisted housing programs, including the Public Housing program and the Housing Choice Voucher program (commonly known as “Section 8” or the voucher program).
    SEARCH ONLINE: To find your local PHA on the web, visit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) website at: http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/pha/contacts/index.cfm. Once at the website, select your state, then, look for your local PHA by the name of your city or county.
    SEARCH IN THE PHONE BOOK: If you don’t have a regular access to a computer, look in your phone book in the government or business sections for your local Public Housing Authority (PHA). Some areas have both city and county PHAs; others just have a city PHA. In the government section of the phone book, first look for the city, then look for “housing authority” or “housing department” (for example, the San Francisco Housing Authority, or the Oakland Housing Authority). Sometimes, the local PHA will be listed under the city’s housing department.
    OTHER GOVERNMENT-ASSISTED HOUSING, NOT THROUGH YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY (PHA):
    PRIVATE AND NONPROFIT LANDLORDS operate other forms of government-assisted rental housing programs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) maintains a searchable list of these programs online here: http://www.hud.gov/apps/section8/index.cfm
    LOW INCOME TAX CREDIT HOUSING is an affordable rental housing developed through the Internal Revenue Services’ (IRS) Low Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC). Typically, this housing does not serve extremely low-income households, but it is less expensive than similar private housing in the community. LIHTC housing is owned and operated by private owners and nonprofit agencies and is monitored in each state by a state agency. Frequently, but not always, that agency is the state housing finance agency. Some of these agencies may have lists of persons and organizations that operate LIHTC housing in your state. In CA, it’s the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee that oversees LIHTC. Read more about these types of property at: http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/ctcac/tax.asp
    RURAL HOUSING: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also funds government-assisted rental housing in rural areas throughout the United States and maintains a website that allows you to search for rural government-assisted rental housing here: http://rdmfhrentals.sc.egov.usda.gov/RDMFHRentals/select_state.jsp

Who is my landlord if I live in government-assisted housing?

It depends. If you live in PUBLIC HOUSING, the local Public Housing Authority (PHA)—run by your city or county—owns your entire building and is your landlord. In rare cases, a private company may manage the building for the PHA or may be part of the ownership, but the building is still controlled by the PHA. PHAs operate in almost every city and county in California.

If you live in OTHER TYPES OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-ASSISTED HOUSING, the PHA is not your landlord. This includes all of the other types of government-assisted housing discussed on PG. 353 above. Even if you applied through the PHA, it will not be your landlord. Instead, your landlord will be a private owner who receives financial assistance from the federal government in exchange for renting to low-income people, or a private owner that accepts vouchers from low-income people who went through a PHA to get a reduction on their rent. Owners of government-assisted housing could be individual landlords, for-profit companies, or nonprofit organizations. You can get this type of government-assisted housing through VOUCHERS, where you get the assistance from a PHA and then have to find rental housing on the private market that will accept your voucher. OR you can get this type of government-assisted housing through “multifamily” properties where the owner gets the assistance and it stays with the property to keep it affordable for low-income tenants.