Can You Have a Roommate on Section 8?

Yes, but not informally. There are two legal ways to live with someone who is not already in your voucher household. You can add them to your household, which means their income counts toward your rent. Or, if your housing authority allows it, you can use "shared housing," a federal option where you and a roommate share an apartment, the roommate stays off your voucher, and the subsidy is prorated to your bedrooms only.

What you cannot do is rent out your spare room or let a friend move in on the side. Both violate the family obligations and can end your assistance.

This is general information, not legal advice. Your housing authority's administrative plan controls the details.

Why You Cannot Just Bring in a Roommate

The family obligations in 24 CFR 982.551(h) close off the informal route three ways:

• The housing authority must approve everyone living in the unit, and "no other person" may reside there except an approved foster child or live-in aide.
• "The family must not sublease or let the unit."
• "The family must not assign the lease or transfer the unit."

A roommate who pays you rent is a sublet. A roommate who pays nothing but lives there is an unauthorized occupant. Either one is a ground for termination under 982.552(c)(1)(i), and the rent they paid you is unreported income.

Option 1: Add the Person to Your Household

Anyone can be proposed as a household member, not only relatives or partners. The federal definition of family in 24 CFR 5.403 includes "a group of persons residing together." The process is the same as adding a partner: you request approval, the person is screened, the landlord adds them to the lease, and their income is counted. We walk through it in can my boyfriend or girlfriend live with me on Section 8.

Two limits to know:

• Your housing authority may not allow it. Local policy can restrict which adults may be added. Philadelphia's plan, for example, will not approve adding adults "other than by reason of marriage or interdependent relationship or domestic partnership." A platonic roommate would not qualify there.
• It is one household, one rent calculation. The roommate's income raises your share, their record is part of your file, and their conduct can put the voucher at risk.

Option 2: Shared Housing

Shared housing is one of the "special housing types" in the voucher regulations. 24 CFR 982.615 says: "An assisted family may reside in shared housing. In shared housing, an assisted family shares a unit with the other resident or residents of the unit. The unit may be a house or an apartment."

How it differs from adding a household member:

• Your roommate is not on your voucher. The rule allows sharing with "other persons who are assisted under the tenant-based program, or other persons who are not assisted." Their income is not your household's income.
• Each assisted family has a separate lease and a separate payment contract (24 CFR 982.616). You are responsible for your lease, not theirs.
• Two voucher holders can share. Each uses their own voucher for their own private space in the same unit.
• The owner can live there. A resident owner may rent you space, with one restriction: "An assisted person may not be related by blood or marriage to a resident owner."

The unit requirements

Under 24 CFR 982.618:

• The whole unit must pass inspection, not only your part of it.
• You must have private space plus access to common space. The facilities available to you must include a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen.
• Your private space "must contain at least one bedroom for each two persons in the family" and cannot have fewer bedrooms than your voucher size.
• "A zero or one bedroom unit may not be used for shared housing." You need at least a 2-bedroom.

How the subsidy is calculated

24 CFR 982.617 prorates everything by bedrooms. Your "pro-rata portion" is the number of bedrooms in your private space divided by the total bedrooms in the unit.

• Your payment standard is the lower of the standard for your voucher size or the pro-rata share of the standard for the whole unit.
• The rent to the owner for your part cannot exceed the pro-rata share of the reasonable rent for the whole unit.
• Your utility allowance is the pro-rata share of the unit's allowance.

Philadelphia's administrative plan gives a worked example using its own illustrative figures. A family with a 2-bedroom voucher takes two bedrooms in a 3-bedroom shared unit. The pro-rata share is 2 ÷ 3, or .667. With a 3-bedroom payment standard of $1,695, the prorated figure is $1,131. That is lower than the $1,200 standard for a 2-bedroom voucher, so $1,131 is the payment standard used.

For a single person with a 1-bedroom voucher renting one room in a 3-bedroom apartment, the share is one third of the 3-bedroom payment standard. That is usually well below the 1-bedroom standard, so shared housing works when the rent for the room is low too. To see payment standards by bedroom size in large metros, start with our Section 8 payment standards posts.

Your housing authority has to offer it

This is the catch. 24 CFR 982.601(b) says a housing authority "may permit" special housing types and "is not required to," with one exception: it "must permit use of any special housing type if needed as a reasonable accommodation" for a person with disabilities.

Housing authorities whose plans say they allow shared housing include:

• Chicago Housing Authority (HCV Administrative Plan effective June 1, 2025, Chapter 15, Special Housing Types)
• Philadelphia Housing Authority (Administrative Plan, June 15, 2023, Chapter 22)
• NYCHA in New York City, which lists Single Room Occupancy, Shared Housing and Cooperative Housing as the special housing types it participates in (Administrative Plan effective May 2026)

If your housing authority's plan does not mention shared housing, ask in writing whether it is permitted. If you need it because of a disability, for example to live with someone who provides support but is not a live-in aide, make a reasonable accommodation request.

A Live-In Aide Is Not a Roommate

If you are elderly or have a disability and need someone living with you to provide care, that person can be approved as a live-in aide. An aide is not a household member for income purposes, so their income is not counted, and they are counted when the housing authority sets your voucher size. The definition is strict: the aide must be essential to your care, not obligated to support you, and someone who "would not be living in the unit except to provide the necessary supportive services." A friend who splits the bills does not fit it.

Which Option Fits

What Landlords Should Know

• In shared housing you sign a separate lease and a separate housing assistance payment contract with each assisted family. The rent for each is capped at that family's pro-rata share of the reasonable rent for the whole unit.
• The entire unit has to pass inspection, including the unassisted roommate's space.
• You can live in the unit yourself and still rent to a voucher holder, as long as you are not related to them by blood or marriage. No assistance is paid on your own behalf.
• If you discover an unapproved roommate in a regular voucher unit, raise it with the tenant. It is a lease issue for you and a program violation for them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I rent out a room in my Section 8 apartment?

No. The family obligations prohibit subleasing or letting the unit, and the rent you collect would be unreported income.

Can two people with Section 8 vouchers live together?

Yes, through shared housing where the housing authority offers it. Each family has a separate lease and contract and its own private bedrooms. The other route is to merge into one household, which means giving up one voucher.

Does my roommate's income count?

If the roommate is added to your household, yes. In shared housing, no, because they are a separate household.

Can I use shared housing in a 1-bedroom?

No. The regulations bar zero- and one-bedroom units from shared housing.

Can I rent a room from my mother with my voucher?

Not under shared housing. An assisted person cannot be related by blood or marriage to a resident owner.

Does every housing authority allow shared housing?

No. It is optional for the housing authority except when needed as a reasonable accommodation for a person with disabilities. Check the special housing types chapter of your housing authority's administrative plan.

Sources

• 24 CFR 982.551, Obligations of participant
• 24 CFR 982.601, Special housing types overview
• 24 CFR 982.615, 982.616, 982.617 and 982.618, shared housing
• 24 CFR 5.403, Definitions (family, live-in aide)
• Chicago Housing Authority HCV Administrative Plan, effective June 1, 2025
• Philadelphia Housing Authority Administrative Plan, June 15, 2023
• NYCHA Housing Choice Voucher Program Administrative Plan, effective May 2026

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