VoucherMatch Blog

No. A Housing Choice Voucher cannot be given, sold, or signed over to anyone. What can happen is narrower: an adult who is already an approved member of your household can keep the voucher when you die or leave, if your housing authority's rules allow it. Here is the federal rule, how five large housing authorities decide, and how to protect a child or partner who may need to take over.

A Section 8 lottery is not a drawing for a voucher. It is a random draw for a place on a waiting list, and the wait after that is often years. Here is why housing authorities use lotteries, the three ways they run them, real numbers from recent drawings, why applying first does not help, and what to do the day your name comes up.

GoSection8.com became AffordableHousing.com on September 13, 2021, and the old address still redirects there. Here is what the site is now, why NYCHA still runs every rent check through it, the copycat sites to avoid, and the other places voucher holders in New York City actually find apartments.

NYCHA published two payment standard schedules for 2026, one for new rentals and transfers and a higher one for annual recertifications, and it ended exception ZIP codes on July 1, 2026. Here are both tables, the 2026 utility allowances, and the math that turns a payment standard into the rent you can afford and the share you pay.

There is no single housing voucher application in New York City. Section 8 is closed and NYCHA has paused issuing vouchers, but CityFHEPS, FHEPS, HASA, HUD-VASH and SOTA all have working doors right now. Here is which one fits your situation, who to call, and what happens after you qualify.

Yes, in two ways. You can add the person to your voucher household, or you can use a federal option called shared housing, where a roommate stays off your voucher and the subsidy covers only your part of the unit. Here is how each works and which housing authorities allow it.

Yes. Marriage does not end a voucher and there is no rule against it. What changes is your household, so your spouse has to be approved and their income gets counted. Here is how to do it without putting the voucher at risk.

Only a handful of things are automatic disqualifiers under federal law. Most of what people worry about, including bad credit, an old conviction, or a past eviction, is either irrelevant or left to the housing authority's judgment. Here is the full list.

A short list of things force a housing authority to end your assistance. A longer list lets it choose to. Here are both, straight from the federal rules, plus the hearing rights that apply before any payment stops.

Yes, if the housing authority approves them as a household member first. Moving a partner in without approval is one of the most common ways people lose a voucher. Here is the rule, what approval involves, and what it does to your rent.