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The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Administration have a special Section 8 program called VASH (Veterans Administration Supported Housing), or HUD-VASH, which gives out a certain number of Section 8 vouchers to eligible homeless and otherwise vulnerable US armed forces veterans.
In the 1970s, when studies showed that the worst housing problem afflicting low-income people was no longer substandard housing, but the high percentage of income spent on housing, Congress passed the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, further amending the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 to create the Section 8 Program. In the Section 8 Program, tenants pay about 30 percent of their income for rent, while the rest of the rent is paid with federal money.
The Section 8 program initially had three subprograms — New Construction, Substantial Rehabilitation, and Existing Housing Certificate programs. The Moderate Rehabilitation Program was added in 1978, the Voucher Program in 1983, and the Project-based Certificate program in 1991. The numbers of units a local housing authority can subsidize under its Section 8 programs is determined by Congressional funding. Since its inception, some Section 8 programs have been phased out and new ones created, although Congress has always renewed existing subsidies.
HR1851, the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007 (SEVRA), was introduced in the House of Representatives to reform Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937. It was passed by the House in July, 2007, and went to the Senate for study and consideration as Senate version, S. 2684, filed on March 3, 2008 by Senator Christopher Dodd, chair of Senate Banking Committee.
The 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law 110-161) enacted December 26, 2007, allocated $75 million dollars funding the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) voucher program, authorized under section 8(o)(19) of the United Stated Housing Act of 1937. This new program combines HUD Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance for homeless veterans with case management and clinical service support which is provided by Veterans Affairs administration at its own medical centers and also in the community.
Under the voucher program, individuals or families with a voucher find and lease a unit (either in a specified complex or in the private sector) and pay a portion of the rent (based on income, but generally no more than 30% (40% being the maximum at time of lease-up) of the family's income).
There is an asset test in addition to earned income. Over a certain amount, HUD will add income even if the Section 8 tenant doesn't receive any interest income from, for example, a bank account. HUD calls this "imputed income from assets" and in the case of a bank account, HUD establishes a standard "Passbook Savings Rate" to calculate the imputed income from the asset. This makes the tenant's contribution higher since their gross income is made higher.
The PHA pays the landlord the remainder of the rent over the tenant's portion, subject to a cap referred to as "Fair Market Rent" (FMR) which is determined by HUD. FMR is determined by several factors, including:
The landlord cannot charge a Section 8 tenant more than FMR and cannot accept payments outside the contract which would cause the total rent to exceed FMR.
In addition, landlords, though required to meet fair housing laws, are not required to participate in the Section 8 program. As a result, some landlords will not accept a Section 8 tenant. This can be attributed to such factors as: not wanting the government involved in their business, such as having a full inspection of their premises by government workers for HUD's Housing Quality Standards (HQS) and the possible remediations required
However, other landlords willingly accept Section 8 tenants, due to:
Whether voucher or project-based, all subsidized units must meet HQS, thus ensuring that the family has a healthy and safe place to live. This improvement in the landlord's private property is an important by-product of this program, both for the individual families and for the larger goal of community development.
In many localities, the PHA waiting lists for Section 8 vouchers may be thousands of families long, waits of three to five years to access vouchers is common, and many lists are closed to new applicants.
Families who participate in the program must abide by a series of rules and regulations, often referred to as "family obligations," in order to maintain their voucher, including accurately reporting to the PHA all changes in household income and/or family composition so the amount of their subsidy (and the applicable rental unit size limitation) can be updated accordingly. In recent years, the HUD Office of the Inspector General has spent more time and money on fraud detection and prevention.
Category:Affordable housing Category:Public housing in the United States Category:Federal assistance in the United States Category:United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
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