Summary

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides rental housing assistance to families through its section 8 voucher and certificate programs. By subsidizing a portion of household rent, HUD hopes to enable more low-income families to live in private rental housing that is decent and safe. This fact sheet provides information on the following section 8 issues: (1) the demographic characteristics of elderly and nonelderly voucher and certificate recipients, including sex, race, handicapped status, adjusted income, and education; (2) the quality of the housing units rented by elderly voucher and certificate recipients; and (3) the proportion of income that elderly and nonelderly voucher recipients pay for rent.

GAO found that: (1) the majority of elderly and nonelderly heads of households who received vouchers or certificates from large urban PHA were women and nondisabled; (2) elderly households were more likely to be headed by white recipients, nonelderly households were equally likely to be headed by black or white recipients, and the majority of both elderly and nonelderly recipients had received less than or equal to a 12th grade education; (3) the average adjusted annual income for elderly and nonelderly voucher and certificate recipients varied between $5,600 and $6,000; (4) the majority of section 8 households in 4 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) tended to be headed by women, the majority of whom were nondisabled; (5) nonelderly households were more likely to be headed by black recipients; (6) mean adjusted incomes varied between $6,600 and $7,400 for elderly and nonelderly certificate and voucher recipients; (7) the majority of the recipients were satisfied with the quality and size of the units they rented, their neighborhoods, and their access to services; (8) the majority of recipients believed that affordable better housing would be difficult to find; (9) the average annual rent burden for PHA voucher recipients was about 29 percent of adjusted income for elderly households and 34 percent for nonelderly households; and (6) voucher and certificate recipients in MSA had average annual rent burdens of 30 percent of their adjusted income for elderly households and 35 percent for nonelderly households.