Section 8 Housing in Utah

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!

What Allows you to Qualify for Section 8 Housing in Utah?

Section 8 housing - the subsidized housing program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD, www.hud.gov) - is a federal program and the basic requirements needed to qualify are the same in all fifty states. Although the process is usually more involved and complicated, in the most basic sense, there are only two strict conditions that must be met in order to qualify for Section 8 housing: proper personal status and a low enough annual income.

On the question of personal status, the primary concern is insuring that illegal immigrants or non-citizens without proper standing do not benefit from the program. Therefore, in order to qualify for Section 8 housing, one must generally be a United States citizen. Legal resident-aliens that receive specific approval from the immigration authorities are also eligible, but the process can become very complicated for people that are not citizens. Basically, they have to obtain written permission from the immigration authorities before even applying for the program and this can be difficult since the immigration authorities are frequently resistant to the idea of allowing in non-citizens that lack the means to house themselves without government assistance.

Beyond this personal status issue, the other basic qualification is essentially a means test to insure that the applicant makes a low enough income to actually need assistance. The general rule is that in order to qualify the applicant must have an annual gross (not net) income of fifty percent or less of the local median income. The median income is determined by HUD based on a number of factors and may or may not accurately represent the actual median income, nevertheless it is the numbers accepted by HUD that are taken into consideration when reviewing an application for Section 8 housing. The median incomes are local, generally focused on either a metropolitan area or a county, so it is entirely possible that someone that qualifies for Section 8 housing in one locality would not qualify in a different one.

The general fifty percent rule notwithstanding, the local public housing authorities (PHAs) that actually administrate the program at the local level are also obligated by law to award seventy-five percent of their assigned number of Section 8 vouchers to people making thirty percent or less of the median income. The idea behind this legal mandate is to ensure that the people in the most need receive precedence over those with a lesser need. However, in practice it means that people making between thirty and fifty percent of the local median income have a particularly difficult time getting section 8 housing despite meeting the basic qualifying conditions.

People moving to Utah and in need of subsidized housing should probably visit the HUD website and find the PHA governing the program in the locality in which they intend to move. The local PHA should be able to provide all of the requisite information needed to successfully apply for Section 8 housing and get on the waiting list for a Section 8 housing unit in the desired area.