Introduction to Low-Income Housing
Are you having difficulty keeping up with bills or paying the rent? If so, you are not alone. Many families struggle to keep up with rents that have increased up to 40% in the past decade. Economists and everyday people alike can see that rent, utilities, food, clothing, and everything else have continued to get more expensive, so government assistance programs have only increased in their importance for families in need.
As of 2019, the median cost of housing including utilities across the country had risen to $1,100, while often being considerably more expensive in urban areas. Focusing on the question of ‘where to live’ specifically, there are many different assistance programs intended to help with direct housing costs. 10.4 million people across 5.2 million households currently depend on housing assistance in the United States. These programs, operating under the blanket term ‘low-income housing’, aim to assist in securing stable, safe, and healthy living spaces for those in need.
The Apartment Home Living team is passionate about providing you and your family with the most up-to-date rental data and tools to find the perfect place to live—and this includes ‘low-income’ housing. In this comprehensive guide, we will show you tools for finding low-income housing, and discuss what types of support are available, and how to apply. At the end of this guide, we will connect you with the largest low-income housing programs in the United States with links by city. The first step in finding the right kind of assistance is to understand the support systems and requirements as they exist today—so we will start with the basics!
What is Low-Income Housing?
Low-income housing refers to single-family homes, condos, townhomes, apartments, or alternative housing designated for families that do not have enough income to pay for the prevailing local rental rates. Low-income housing is administrated at the federal, state, county, and local levels, as well as by non-profit organizations regionally. These programs exist to help prevent or ameliorate homelessness, housing insecurity, and poverty through either direct or indirect financial support. Participants in these programs can expect to receive vouchers for rent aid, below-market rent rates, or direct access to housing provided by the administrating organization.
Low-income housing programs are an important part of the American societal safety net, though they are often understaffed, underfunded, and may have years-long waiting lists. As you may expect, housing support is a valuable and coveted resource, which translates to only ¼ of applicants successfully receiving vouchers as recently as 2018. Discrimination is another issue, with wide reports of landlords refusing to accept vouchers as a form of payment. While some states and cities have anti-discrimination laws that prevent landlords from declining an applicant solely based on a Section 8 voucher, Texas passed a law in 2015 that allows this practice across the board. The result is that only 12% of communities in a recent survey in Dallas would accept Section 8 vouchers as payment. The same study also showed that voucher acceptance rates were higher in minority neighborhoods, and significantly lower in predominantly white parts of town. The pressure is high when in Houston, 25% of voucher recipients are forced to relinquish their voucher within 2 months if they cannot successfully find a property within as little as 60 days, according to the Houston Housing Authority.
However, some jurisdictions make this process easier. In Massachusetts and Oregon, discrimination against voucher holders is prohibited altogether. In New York City, apartment buildings with 7 or more units are required to accept vouchers. Despite the challenges of access, there are multiple layers of assistance available in many cities, and families in need are encouraged to explore all available options.
Low-Income Housing Types and Approaches
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Apartments
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 established a program called the “Low-Income Housing Tax Credit” which is an incentive program to help developers develop affordable housing across the United States. This program, more than any other, has provided below-market-rate rental opportunities to Americans, with over 3.5 million apartments during the lifetime of the program, and tens of thousands of new apartments coming into the market annually as of 2024. Under this program, tax incentives are offered in exchange for developer earmarking their apartment units to certain income thresholds.
Property managers are required to rigorously document the qualifications of their tenants under the income restriction rules, as they are at risk of losing their tax benefits if they do not comply. It is estimated that this program will cost the government over $14B in 2024, making it the costliest federal program for stimulating the development of housing for low and middle-income families.
Interested in finding apartments like this for your family? Our site offers available units under this program. To find them, filter for ‘Low-Income’ under the Community Type section in the filter menu (see below).
Section 8 Housing Vouchers
One of the best-known and most widely available programs is the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, offered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Section 8 gets its name as it is ‘Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937, and in this program recipients are issued monthly vouchers for rent, allowing them to secure housing from participating communities or rental landlords. To participate in Section 8, landlords get certification from their local Public Housing Authority. The inspection process ensures that the property they have meets program requirements including accessibility, structural integrity, safe heating and cooling, fire safety, adequate sanitation, and lead paint compliance.
Once certified to participate, landlords then market their properties to Section 8 participants, and perform their own background and credit checks- much like a traditional tenant/landlord relationship. Landlords in this type of rental agreement must continue to meet safety and inspection checks and are prevented from significant changes in rent. Similar to Section 8 is the Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing voucher program (VASH) which offers approximately 10,000 vouchers annually. Local housing authorities apply for and are issued Section 8 vouchers, which they can distribute through their specific application process. In the case of Austin, the local housing authority has 5,400 Section 8 vouchers that they administer. In this program, renters pay about 30%-40% of their income for housing, and the voucher makes up the difference. Vouchers are also preferentially distributed to populations at highest risk: Seniors account for 20% of vouchers, families with children have 58%, and those with disabilities account for 25% of vouchers.
Public Housing
Public housing is owned and operated directly by a government entity, typically a local ‘housing authority’ or a municipal housing department. These agencies have staff members or contract companies that directly handle management, maintenance, and collecting rent at housing projects. Public housing is different from Section 8 in that is usually paid for by local taxes or bond initiatives and has a relatively limited number of units in its inventory. Since buildings need to be purchased, adapted, or constructed, public housing is a relatively slow-moving process. And like Section 8, there are typically very long waiting lists for public housing, sometimes taking years for an application to be accepted. Applications for public housing often take special needs into account. Factors considered include age, those with disabilities, and families with children. Details and availability of projects will vary depending on the area. Public housing is often very ‘visible’ in the public eye, taking the form of clusters of special-purpose apartment towers, or entire communities with parks, recreation centers, clinics, and more. While there have been spectacular failures in public housing both domestically and internationally, many of the ‘lessons learned' are being applied to the practice of public housing in recent years, and the success rate of such projects has climbed steadily. In the case of Austin Texas, the local housing authority has eighteen public housing properties, with a total of 1,839 apartments for rent across the city. Participating families pay about 30% of their income towards rent. Residency in Austin public housing comes with the added benefits of access to education, job training, health, and wellness programs.
Rural Rental Housing
The United States Department of Agriculture established by Title V of the Housing Act of 1949 also sponsors rental support programs that designate certain multifamily complexes in rural areas for subsidy. These properties receive compensation for participation in the program and they offer rental apartments at subsidized rates to low-income tenants. In this program, tenants with the lowest incomes are prioritized first – particularly applicants with ‘very low income’ defined as less than 50% of the area median income. This program focuses on deep rural properties, as opposed to most programs listed in this overview which tend to be urban-based. View an interactive map of units available with this program here.
Project-Based Section 8 Housing
Some residential (mainly multifamily) offerings are the result of agreements between real estate developers and HUD, in which vouchers are issued directly to the community and serve to ‘bridge the gap’ between what tenants pay and the prevailing ‘fair market rent’ for the area. Property managers can expect to collect rent of about 30% of a tenant’s income and will receive a voucher to supplement that amount. In these projects, a certain number of apartment units will be designated for Section 8 – anything from several units to the entirety of the project. Developers are attracted to this type of project because of the societal benefit, rent payments that are guaranteed by HUD, typically low turnover, and low vacancy rates. These projects may also offer significant tax benefits. In addition, Section 8 tenants in these projects are highly incentivized to abide by the covenants of their lease, as their benefits are tied to their contract with the property – losing their lease would equate to loss of benefits.
“Inclusionary Zoning”
Some housing developers agree to set aside low-income units in their housing developments in exchange for zoning changes granted by the city that allow them to build on a particular site. For instance, a city may issue a zoning change that allows a multifamily development to be built on a certain address in exchange for a set aside of 10-15% of the units being dedicated to low-income tenants. This strategy is employed by city governments to foster socio-economic diversity and to increase affordable housing supply without direct cost to often very tight municipal budgets. Another benefit for tenants is that many of these communities are extremely nice and afford low-income families extraordinary access to high-end amenities and living conditions, and afford children access to higher-rated schools than they may otherwise have had access to. Inclusionary Zoning has been employed to great success across the United States but carries with it certain drawbacks. Cities like Austin TX (with whom I have worked on this topic) often don’t have the resources to track these set-asides after they have been issued – making their benefit hard to quantify. And these types of affordable housing units may be unevenly managed, and hard for eligible citizens to find and compete for. Without tracking, it is hard for governments to make sure that the agreed-to units are being offered appropriately. Case studies where inclusionary zoning has been used successfully are found in Breckenridge CO, and Chapel Hill SC.
Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing
Most markets in the US have a segment of the available housing inventory that has rents low enough to be comparable to the cost of subsidized housing. This type of inventory is often referred to as ‘Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing” (NOAH) and defined by the city of Austin TX as ‘” housing that is affordable at or below 80% of median family income (MFI)”. As of 2021, there were 141,000 such units available in Austin. Websites such as ours (www.ApartmentHomeLiving.com) can be useful tools for finding this type of affordable housing. The plus side of this type of rental is its price: It is affordable. This type of housing is also not subject to waiting lists, application processes, income restrictions, or other barriers to renting that subsidized housing requires. On the other hand, the lowest echelon in the pricing spectrum in a city may be low-priced for good reason: Poor property conditions, higher crime areas, lack of amenities, and other shortcomings can be expected. Apartments of this type do not benefit from rent protections, inspections, and rigorous fair housing monitoring that may take place in other forms of low-income housing, but it is much more readily available.
Eligibility Requirements
Applications for low-income housing come with notable requirements. First and foremost, low-income housing typically has what is called ‘income restrictions’. This puts a cap on what a household can make in terms of combined income to qualify for access to a low-income apartment or to receive a voucher.
An example income limit eligibility table for a low-income property in Austin Texas:
| # Persons | Annual Income |
|---|---|
| 1 | $98,175 |
| 2 | $112,200 |
| 3 | $126,225 |
| 4 | $140,175 |
| 5 | $151,425 |
| 6 | $162,675 |
In addition to income requirements, some programs may have other qualifying factors, which may include a clean rental history, background check, and credit history. In some cases, applicants will be asked to document ‘aspects of need’ beyond the economic: Disability, veteran status, age, household size (including minor children), and homeless status may be considered as part of the qualification process. Policies and acceptance criteria will vary depending on the city, state, or county in which you apply.
Conclusion
Low-income housing programs can be a lifeline for families and individuals with housing insecurity and unsteady income. The housing programs available are usually administrated at the local level by bodies known as ‘housing authorities’. The programs they administer come in various flavors, among which income-restricted apartments are the most plentiful. Voucher programs are highly sought-after programs, but are under-supplied and likely to involve a long wait for access. And lastly, the so-called ‘naturally occurring low income’ housing is the natural alternative to turn to regular in-market rentals at low price points.
Major Housing Authorities in the Ubr
- New York City, New York - NYC Housing Connect
- Los Angeles, California - Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles
- Chicago, Illinois - Chicago Housing Authority
- Houston, Texas - Houston Housing Authority
- Phoenix, Arizona - City of Phoenix Housing Department
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Philadelphia Housing Authority
- San Antonio, Texas - San Antonio Housing Authority
- San Diego, California - San Diego Housing Commission
- Dallas, Texas - Dallas Housing Authority
- San Jose, California - Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara
- Austin, Texas - Housing Authority of the City of Austin
- Fort Worth, Texas - Fort Worth Housing Solutions
- Columbus, Ohio - Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority
- San Francisco, California - San Francisco Housing Authority
- Indianapolis, Indiana - Indianapolis Housing Agency
- Seattle, Washington - Seattle Housing Authority
- Denver, Colorado - Denver Housing Authority
- Washington, District of Columbia - DC Housing Authority
- Boston, Massachusetts - Boston Housing Authority
- El Paso, Texas - Housing Authority of the City of El Paso
- Detroit, Michigan - Detroit Housing Commission
- Nashville, Tennessee - Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency
- Portland, Oregon - Housing Authority of Portland
- Memphis, Tennessee - Memphis Housing Authority
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Oklahoma City Housing Authority
- Las Vegas, Nevada - Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority
- Louisville, Kentucky - Louisville Metro Housing Authority
- Baltimore, Maryland - Housing Authority of Baltimore City
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee
Resources:
- https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-rental-assistance-fact-sheets#US
- https://www.inclusivecommunities.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Survey-of-Multi-Family-properties-Analysis-CDDR-6-8-17-w-cover.pdf
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/house-bill/3838
- https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RS22389.pdf
- https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-rental-assistance-fact-sheets#US
- https://www.archdaily.com/968180/cabrini-green-and-vele-di-scampia-when-public-housing-projects-dont-work-out
- https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-7/subtitle-B/chapter-XXXV/part-3560#sp7.15.3560.f
- https://inclusionaryhousing.org/inclusionary-housing-explained/what-is-inclusionary-housing/inclusionary-housing-work/
- https://data.austintexas.gov/stories/s/kiyh-6vgk
