The US has a powerful program that can help low-income people become successful homeowners – but it is badly underused. The HUD Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is helping over 2.2 million Americans pay their rent. The same voucher can be used to make a mortgage payment affordable for the same very low-income people. Almost half of current voucher holders are Black or Latino. This program will increase Black and Latino homeownership, build wealth for very low-income people, and provide all the benefits of homeownership.

Coupled with high-quality housing counseling and downpayment assistance, this homeownership voucher program should be the leading low-income homeownership program in the country. But less than 10,000 of the vouchers are for homeownership today (less than .5%).

The National Housing Resource Center (NHRC) will partner with local groups around the country to change this. Here are the critical steps to expand the Section 8 homeownership program:

  • Work with HUD to improve the program by increasing public housing authority (PHA) participation, expanding the eligible properties, and engaging eligible low-income families. We are a working group of 50 leading housing counseling agencies, trade groups, PHAs, and housing advocates with reform proposals that are working directly with HUD to upgrade the program.
  • Create Local Homeownership Voucher Pipelines with local partnerships of PHAs, housing counseling agencies, lenders, and affordable housing developers. Everything we have learned about Section 8 homeownership delivery is that these partnerships are the critical link to getting to scale. If funded, we will develop these partnerships in major cities (already started in Philadelphia and Chicago), in small towns and rural areas where housing stock may be more affordable, and in inner-ring suburbs.
  • Partner with Affordable Housing Developers. Habitat for Humanity, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America are founding members of our working group and committed to working with local partnerships on Section 8 homeownership. We are developing partnerships with leading manufactured housing developers to leverage Section 8 opportunities with their developments. There are more opportunities with for-profit housing developers and nonprofit developers.
  • Increase Mortgage Lender Participation. We are convening a national meeting with the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Housing Policy Council for mortgage lenders to learn about the program, hear from participating lenders, and establish best practices. This program is a perfect match for meeting Community Reinvestment Act obligations and Special Purpose Credit Program goals. We are engaging with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to improve their underwriting guidelines, which could qualify many more Section 8 homebuyers.

There is no other equivalent program that can help as many low-income people become homeowners.