Texas Section 8 Housing

Low Income Housing Information

Low income housing can be a godsend, but if you don't know how to apply, or who to get your information to, how can you ever expect to be approved?

Since laws and procedure vary from state to state, you'll need to learn a few specifics before applying. We can help!

Where to find Low Income Housing in Texas

Texas prides itself on its strong conservative stance and in this tradition the state itself provides resources for people looking for affordable housing. The Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation (TSAHC, www.tsahc.org) is almost exclusively devoted to helping property owners and developers attempting to take advantage of federal tax funds build low income housing in Texas as opposed to a resource that provides much useful information to people in actual need of housing assistance. Further, Texas devotes virtually no state funds to helping house its residents and even the TSAHC mentioned above receives no state assistance and is effectively a private corporation.

People considering moving to Texas and requiring subsidized housing should probably turn first to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service (TxLIHIS, www.texashousing.org). This is a private non-profit organization that actually provides much more useful information for people actually in need of housing assistance than anything the TSAHC has to offer. Not only do they provide comprehensive contact information regarding the local PHAs and other housing assistance resources, they also provide detailed information regarding Texas law and tenant's rights. TxLIHIS should probably be the first place anyone needing housing assistance should consider visiting before moving to Texas.

As is the case in most states, especially those with a more conservative political bent, virtually all of the housing available is based on various federal programs. In particular, affordable housing in Texas is dominated by Section 8 housing, overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Therefore, quite a bit of information can be obtained through the HUD website: www.hud.gov and its various portals and subsidiary websites. This is particularly true if the person in need of Section 8 housing already knows specifically which part of Texas they intend to live in.

The HUD website provides a comprehensive listing of all HUD-approved public housing authorities (PHAs) in Texas, which means it is easy for people looking for housing assistance to find the relevant authority for the area in question. Although Section 8 housing is a federal program, the actual administration of it, including the approval of applicants and the maintenance of waiting lists, is conducted by the PHA. Therefore it is the PHA - which can be found via the HUD website - that someone seeking Section 8 housing assistance should contact. Further, the PHAs are more likely to be aware of local programs that might not be available elsewhere, some of which may be considerably better than the Section 8 options available in the area.

The HUD website also provides a comprehensive listing of the current HUD-recognized median income levels which are used to determine eligibility for Section 8 housing. Basically, in order to qualify for Section 8 housing, the applicant has to make fifty percent or less of the median income of the county or metropolitan area in question. These median income levels are regularly updated and modified, so it can pay to review the current median income levels as defined by HUD to see whether or not the applicant meets the qualifying annual income level before actually beginning the bureaucratic process of actively applying for Section 8 housing.