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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Housing Vouchers

The Housing Choice Voucher Program assists 2 million low-income households across the country afford housing. The prgram purpose is to help these families afford decent, safe and sanitary housing. Tenants, who would otherwise pay over 50% of their income to rent an apartment on the private market, pay 30% of their income.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • A variety of studies show housing vouchers to be a cost-effective means of delivering decent, safe and sanitary housing for low-income families. Housing subsidies provide access in most cases to better housing, often in better neighborhoods.
  • The new funding structure simplifies the program and allocates tenant-based assistance on a budget, rather than unit basis, assuring that programs for housing assistance are fully utilized.
  • Historically, there has been a large amount of improper payments to tenants who do not accurately report income. HUD has made substantial progress in reducing erroneous payments--reduced from 3.2 billion in 2000 to 1.3 billion in 2004.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Continue to work with Congress to streamline the program, giving more flexibility to Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) to administer the program to better address local needs and market conditions.
  • Implementing the Upfront Income Verification system fully to eliminate the problem of erroneous payments.
  • Continuing progress on annual and long-term goals.

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