Section 8.fyi

Guides

Words this program uses

These are working definitions for this site. The regulation or your housing authority’s plan controls if a word matters to a decision.

This is not legal advice and not a decision by a housing authority. Applying for a voucher is free.

Housing Choice Voucher
The federal rent-assistance program often still called Section 8. The household finds a unit. The housing authority pays part of the rent to the owner.
PHA
Public housing authority. The local or state agency that runs the voucher program and, at many agencies, public housing.
Waitlist
The list an authority keeps when it has more eligible applicants than vouchers. Closed means it is not taking new applications. Open means it is.
Fair Market Rent
HUD’s yearly rent figure for a modest unit in a county or metro area, by bedroom size. Authorities use it when they set payment standards.
Small Area FMR
A Fair Market Rent published for a ZIP code instead of a whole county, in areas where HUD uses small-area rents. Rents can differ a lot from one ZIP to the next.
Payment standard
The maximum rent figure the authority uses to calculate assistance. It is usually near the Fair Market Rent. It is not your share of the rent.
HAP
Housing assistance payment. The monthly amount the authority pays the owner. The contract for that payment is the HAP contract.
Tenant share
The part of the rent the household pays. It is based on income, and it can be higher when the unit’s rent is above the payment standard.
Adjusted income
Annual income after the deductions HUD allows. The tenant share uses adjusted income. Gross income is the figure before those deductions.
Portability
Using a voucher in another housing authority’s area. You start the request with the authority that issued the voucher.
Project-based voucher
Assistance tied to a specific unit or building, not to a voucher you can take to another address. A project-based opening is not the same thing as the tenant-based waitlist opening.
NSPIRE
HUD’s newer inspection standards. Many voucher inspections are moving from the older housing quality standards to NSPIRE. The authority says which one it is using.
Briefing
The meeting or packet the authority gives you when you receive a voucher. It covers how to search, the payment standard, and the deadline.
Request for tenancy approval
The form you and the owner send the authority when you want assistance on a particular unit. The authority then checks the rent and inspects.

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