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Section 8 Housing Voucher — Eligibility and What You Would Pay (2026)

There is no national income limit and no fixed voucher amount — both are local. What is federal is the rent you would be required to pay, and this works that out exactly.

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Your Household and Income

All fields are required unless marked optional. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

Used only to point you at the right housing authority. Income limits are set for your metropolitan area or county, not your state, so the state alone cannot decide them.

Everyone who would live in the assisted unit, including yourself. Household size decides which area income limit applies and how large a unit the voucher covers.

Anyone in the household under 18, a full-time student of any age, or a person with a disability — but not the head of household or their spouse. Each one deducts $500 a year from the income the rent is based on.

$

Everyone's gross income: wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, unemployment, child support. This is the figure the rent share is worked out from.

It changes two things: a further $550 a year comes off the income, and medical costs become deductible — for these households only.

$

For children under 13, where the cost is what lets an adult work or study. Deducted in full, but never more than the earnings it makes possible. Enter 0 if none.

$

Savings, investments and property other than the home you live in. Since 2024 there is a hard federal bar: a family with more than $105,574 cannot be admitted, however low its income.

Federal rules only. Your area's income limits, your housing authority's payment standard and its waiting list are all local, and none of them are held here.

Your Result

Answer the questions to see what you would pay, and what is decided locally

The Three Income Tiers

Tier What it means
Extremely low — 30% of area median At least 75% of newly issued vouchers must go here. In practice this is the queue that moves.
Very low — 50% of area median The usual eligibility bar for a voucher. Being inside it makes you eligible; it does not make you likely.
Low — 80% of area median Used by other housing programmes. Vouchers reach this tier only in narrow cases, so treat it as a different door.

This is an educational guide based on federal Housing Choice Voucher rules and the 2026 inflation-adjusted values effective 1 January 2026. It applies the Total Tenant Payment formula, the federal deductions and the $105,574 net asset bar to the figures you enter. It is not a benefit calculator and shows no voucher amount: what a voucher is worth depends on a payment standard your housing authority sets from local rents. It does not hold your area's income limits, which HUD publishes for around 2,600 areas; it cannot tell you whether any waiting list near you is open or how long the wait is; and it does not check citizenship or immigration status, criminal history, the unit inspection or your housing authority's minimum rent. Only a housing authority can decide an application. The area income limit lookup, the fair market rents and the directory of housing authorities are at hud.gov.

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Why There Is No Section 8 Income Limit to Quote

The limits are not national and not by state. HUD publishes them for each metropolitan area and each non-metropolitan county — around 2,600 tables, at eight household sizes, revised every year — because what counts as a low income in San Francisco is a comfortable one in rural Mississippi. Three tiers matter: extremely low is 30% of the area median, very low is 50%, and low is 80%. Vouchers generally require very low income, so 50% is the usual bar. But at least 75% of the vouchers a housing authority newly issues must go to households under 30%, which is why sitting just inside the 50% line rarely gets anyone to the front of a queue.

You pay the greater of 30% of adjusted monthly income and 10% of gross monthly income — the voucher covers the gap up to a local payment standard

The Deductions That Changed in 2024

Your rent share is worked out from adjusted income, not gross, and the deductions are federal. Each dependent takes $500 a year off. An elderly or disabled family takes a further $550. Childcare that lets an adult work or study comes off in full. And for elderly or disabled families only, unreimbursed medical costs come off — but just the part above 10% of annual income. That threshold was 3% until the 2024 rules raised it, which quietly removed the deduction from a great many households that had relied on it. Guidance written before then still says 3%, and it is wrong.

There is also a floor that catches people out. The contribution is the greater of 30% of adjusted income and 10% of gross, so a household with large deductions can find the 10% rule deciding its rent instead — paying more than the "30% of income" the programme is always described by. On top of that a housing authority may set a minimum rent of up to $50, which applies when it is higher than both. And since 2024 a family with more than $105,574 in net assets cannot be admitted at all, whatever its income.

The Waiting List Is the Programme

Section 8 is not an entitlement. Congress funds a fixed number of vouchers and there are far more eligible households than vouchers, so a housing authority that has run out keeps a list — and many have closed their lists entirely rather than add names to a queue they cannot clear. Where a list opens it is often for a short window, and places are filled by lottery rather than in the order applications arrive, so applying on the first day buys nothing except a ticket in the draw. Waits measured in years are ordinary.

Preferences are the part worth acting on. Housing authorities may move certain applicants ahead of the queue, and the categories differ from one to the next: veterans, households leaving homelessness, people with disabilities, elderly applicants, families who work, and — very commonly — people who already live or work in the authority's area. Two authorities a few miles apart can rank the same household quite differently, so it is worth applying to every list you are eligible for rather than only the nearest one, and worth asking each which preferences it operates.

Important Disclaimer

This is an educational guide based on federal Housing Choice Voucher rules and the 2026 inflation-adjusted values effective 1 January 2026. It applies the Total Tenant Payment formula, the federal deductions and the $105,574 net asset bar to the figures you enter. It is not a benefit calculator and shows no voucher amount: what a voucher is worth depends on a payment standard your housing authority sets from local rents. It does not hold your area's income limits, which HUD publishes for around 2,600 areas; it cannot tell you whether any waiting list near you is open or how long the wait is; and it does not check citizenship or immigration status, criminal history, the unit inspection or your housing authority's minimum rent. Only a housing authority can decide an application. hud.gov

Is This Page Accurate?

The rent share is exact. It applies the federal Total Tenant Payment formula and the 2026 inflation-adjusted deductions — $500 a dependent, $550 for an elderly or disabled family, medical costs above 10% for those families, childcare in full — and takes the greater of 30% of adjusted income and 10% of gross, which is what a housing authority does. The asset bar at $105,574 is federal and is applied. What the page cannot tell you is whether your income is inside your area's limit, because that limit is one of some 2,600 tables it does not hold; what your voucher would be worth, because that depends on a payment standard your housing authority sets; whether a minimum rent of up to $50 applies; and whether any list near you is open. It also does not check citizenship or immigration status, criminal history, or the unit inspection, all of which a housing authority does.