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Section 8 Subsidized Housing--Some Observations on Its High Rents, Costs, and Inequities

CED-80-59 Published: Jun 06, 1980. Publicly Released: Jun 06, 1980.
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Highlights

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Lower Income Rental Assistance Program, also known as the Section 8 Program, is the major federal program for providing the poor with funds or other means to compete for existing housing in the neighborhoods of their choice. Under the Program, HUD makes assistance payments for annual contribution contracts to public housing agencies authorized to engage or assist in developing or operating housing for lower income families. The agencies then pay the owners of units on behalf of the eligible families and in accordance with executed housing assistance payment contracts. Eligibility for assistance is generally limited to families with incomes which do not exceed 80 percent of the median income for the particular area of residence. A federal subsidy is paid equal to the difference between the contract rent, which is based on the market rent of comparable standard units in the area, and the amount of rent paid by the eligible family. Fair market rents are used to determine the amount of total rent paid, and they are supposed to reflect the rentals that prospective tenants who are not assisted would be willing and able to pay.

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Topics

Cost analysisLow income housingProgram evaluationPublic assistance programsRent policiesRent subsidiesRental housingRental ratesHousingHousing programs