UPDATE: Where Does Section 8 Funding Stand?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in early October announced Section 8 is funded through the remainder of 2025. Fiscal year 2026 housing and rental assistance budgets still await full congressional approval or a continuing resolution, which will require the House of Representatives to return to session. Although both chambers voted in July to reject President Trump’s proposals for 40 percent cuts and block-granting of rental assistance, neither offered a spending bill that covers renewal costs for all existing vouchers. Under the House bill, an estimated 181,900 households would lose rental assistance; under the Senate plan, 107,800 would. Also HUD has floated the idea of using rule changes to institute time limits and work requirements.
The Housing Choice Voucher program, better known as Section 8, helps low-income renters afford private-market housing by restricting their portion of the monthly rent to 30 percent of their income. The federal government pays the remainder. The program is run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which transfers its portion of the rent to local public housing authorities (PHAs) each month. The PHAs then pay landlords directly. But Section 8 is facing increased fiscal and administrative uncertainty under the current executive leadership. In late January, for example, Section 8 recipients nationwide wondered if February’s rent would get paid when the White House called for a freeze on all federal funding.
So, what happens when a Section 8 tenant pays their portion of the rent, but the government fails to pay its share? According to statute, the tenant cannot be held responsible for the unpaid amount. (HUD in an email declined to provide specific information, instead referring Shelterforce to the Housing Assistance Payments contract. The applicable information can be found on page 9, subsection 5d, which states that “PHA failure to pay the housing assistance payment to the owner is not a violation of the lease. The owner may not terminate the tenancy for nonpayment of the PHA housing assistance payment.”) HUD rules also prohibit landlords from demanding tenants cover the housing authority’s portion and may not evict tenants solely due to delayed or missing subsidy payments.
But that doesn’t mean tenants aren’t at risk. Here is more information on what protections HUD provides, how tenants should protect themselves, and what risks they still face.
How Tenants Are Protected
- Eviction restrictions: The HUD Occupancy Handbook (4350.3 REV-1) outlines procedures and grounds for terminating tenancy in HUD-assisted housing. It specifies that owners must follow due process and may not terminate tenancy without proper cause. Nonpayment of the tenant’s portion of rent can be grounds for eviction, but the handbook does not list nonpayment by the housing authority as a valid reason for eviction.
- Legal procedures: Landlords must follow specific legal procedures when attempting to evict a Section 8 tenant—this includes providing tenants with proper legal notice.
- Notification: Landlords must also notify the housing authority of any issues related to rent payments or lease violations. They cannot unilaterally decide to evict a tenant without involving the housing authority.
How Tenants Can Act
- Communication: If tenants are facing eviction due to the housing authority’s nonpayment, they should communicate with both the landlord and the housing authority to clarify the situation. They should keep any records, including proof they paid their portion of the rent and any emails or hard copies of written communications. If the exchange is verbal, they should write down what was said as soon as possible following the interaction.
- Legal assistance: Tenants may seek legal assistance and/or contact tenant advocacy groups—such as the National Alliance of HUD Tenants—to protect their rights and ensure proper procedures are followed. (Shelterforce compiled an informational page for tenants facing eviction, which can be found here.)
Although the Section 8 program is designed to incentivize landlords to participate by promising (and providing) reliable, government-backed rent payments, that guarantee can break down if a housing authority delays or fails to pay its portion. In such cases, landlords—who are still prohibited from collecting the missed subsidy directly from tenants—may face financial strain, particularly if they rely on timely payments to cover mortgages or maintenance costs. This could discourage landlords from accepting Section 8 vouchers in the first place, or prompt those already in the program to opt out once their contracts expire, further limiting the pool of affordable housing options for voucher holders.
Once landlords exit the program, voucher-holding tenants remain covered by local eviction protections. A handful of states have good cause eviction protections, meaning a landlord can’t refuse to renew a lease unless the tenant has violated the terms of the lease. However, most renters still won’t be able to afford market-rate rent in the unit they previously used a voucher to help pay for. (Landlords in places with source of income protections can’t officially opt out of accepting vouchers, but without good cause protections in place, they may still decline to renew a lease on unspecified grounds.)
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I was evicted from John Stewart apartments there was so much illegal activity there such as drug trafficking & my tenant rights violatied. I was approved for a retro from 06/23 to 02/24 but my section 8 worker did not process the check to John Stewart including my monthly rent as instructed by her supervisor therefore John Stewart had rejected my monthly rental portion with a letter indicating that they were not accepting my rental checks, when i contacted my section 8 worker she said I had to barrow the total of almost 10,000.00 that included all of the section 8 retro that she purposely didn’t process & my rent portion that they were refusing to accept while they illegally proceeded an eviction that I was not aware of or served until it was to late , the section 8 worker Gohar from LACDA made sure that the payment got processed right after my sheriff lock out date & that I was completely out from the unit on the street homeless, no assistance, John Stewart removed my advocate worker & they did fake applications created by John Stewart for rental emergency assistance that wasn’t even processed & now this is haunting me , it’s affecting my living situation & both Gohar from LACDA & John Stewart have been stalking me , keeping track of my whereabouts by section 8 computer follow ups & physical stalkers. I am currently homeless because these people are currently releasing bad information about me to potential landlords by informing them that I’m a bad person and I don’t pay my rent ,Gohar told an owner that I do NSF checks , this is stopping owners from renting to me, on 08/25 which is now , currently I was rejected a unit because of illegal release of fraudulent information about me & information without my consent was given to a landlord that wanted to rent to me now I’m having problems convincing her even though I submitted videos & documents to her , the same at the section 8 office who has bad documentation from these fraudulent people even though I’ve complained to section 8 ( LACDA) and they themselves discovered that there own colleague never submitted all the documents requested of me because I had to show proof that wasn’t reported or documented on my file on purpose so I am currently homeless as inspection failed yesterday but I feel that maybe the landlord is giving me the runaround or purposely failing & most workers that I can name will not respond to my emails or see me in their office. I can’t find no legal assistance because these people have power and a history of doing this to others, it’s like I’m flagged in the system so no attorney accepts my case I literally had one attorney advise me not to cry or get emotional which was exactly what happened when I was falling apart trying to stay strong & that’s when I knew something is wrong & there’s some kind of bad documentation or I’m flagged meanwhile I have been reporting everything to the board of supervisors office to a worker who has shown frustration with me , she judged me after I mentioned that a Spanish employee of my recent landlord was making illegal accusations to the police about me the workers response was that illegals have rights too I tried to explain that it was literally illegal, criminal individuals doing fraudulent reports against me & they do drug trafficking from Mexico affiliation with the landlord causing a reason to evict me.