Maximizing Impact: Improving the Housing Choice Voucher Program 

The Housing Choice Voucher Program helps more than 2 million families find housing each year—but thousands of vouchers go unused because the program lacks the resources and flexibility to maximize its impact. New research from RAND and UC Berkeley’s Terner Center identifies best practices and policies, as well as regulatory reforms, that can help maximize the use of the HCV program’s scarce resources.

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Report Overview

Housing Choice Vouchers are one of the most effective tools we have in combating homelessness and housing instability in the United States. Each year, vouchers help more than 2 million low-income families rent safe, stable housing in the private market.

But, the program lacks the resources and flexibility to maximize its impact, and rigid rules further complicate its implementation. Thousands of vouchers go unused every year – even as millions of families remain on waiting lists.

New research from RAND and the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation identifies best practices and policies, as well as regulatory reforms that can help to maximize the use of the HCV program’s scarce resources. “Improving Utilization in the Housing Choice Voucher Program” shows that, despite substantial challenges related primarily to declining housing affordability, many PHAs are discovering and using approaches that can help successfully navigate these challenges.

This report draws on the experiences of PHAs across the country and program experts, highlighting practices any PHA can use today, innovations that could be used more broadly with increased regulatory flexibility, and steps local governments and community partners can take to make the Housing Choice Voucher Program more efficient and maximize its impact. Replicating these best practices across the U.S. would mean more families are served, more landlords participate in the program, and communities are strengthened.

How the Voucher Program Works

Families who qualify receive a housing voucher that helps cover part of their rent. They find a place to live in the private market, and the local housing agency pays a share of the rent directly to the landlord. The family pays the rest.

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Challenges and Solutions

Public Housing Authorities: Innovate to Overcome Barriers

Agencies can use innovative strategies and customer-focused practices to overcome obstacles and help more families use their vouchers successfully.

1. Strategic Issuance

Today: Agencies often use conservative issuance strategies because they worry too many families will lease housing at once, straining their budgets. Doing this can leave vouchers unused while families remain on waiting lists.

With Change: Use innovative, data-driven forecasting tools to strategically overissue vouchers and make the most of available resources.

2. Extend Search Time

Today: Many families are allowed 90 days or fewer to find housing in increasingly tight local housing markets, leading to many vouchers expiring unused.

With Change: Extend search windows – up to 180 days or more – so families with the greatest barriers have a real chance to secure housing.

3. Invest in Landlord Engagement

Today: Many landlords see the program as burdensome and avoid renting to voucher holders.

With Change: Develop new landlord partnerships through dedicated staff, landlord hotlines, incentive programs, and innovative outreach efforts. Reduce inspection times and use innovations like providing pre-inspections.

4. Expand Tenant Supports

Today: Families may lose housing opportunities because they can’t navigate the program and struggle to afford deposits, application fees, and other costs.

With Change: Offer housing navigators and financial supports to remove barriers that block families from leasing up.

5. Use Project-Based Vouchers

Today: Families with vouchers often can’t find units in the private market, especially in tight housing markets where rents are high and vacancies are low.

With Change: Devote a greater share of vouchers to specific developments, preserving affordable housing and ensuring units are available to low-income families in high-demand areas.

State & Local Governments: Strengthen Support

State and local governments can back vouchers by partnering with nonprofits, universities, and community groups to provide extra resources and services that help families secure and keep housing.

6. Build Partnerships

Today: Local agencies often lack funding for tenant support or landlord engagement. Families struggle to navigate the rental market and to afford deposits or to address utility arrears.

With Change: Cities and counties can partner with nonprofits, universities, or philanthropy to provide housing navigators, financial assistance, and other supports.

7. Provide Supplemental Resources

Today: Agencies depend almost entirely on limited federal funds, leaving little room for extra services.

With Change: State and local governments can contribute modest local dollars or in-kind resources – such as funding for security deposits, housing counseling, or staff support – that make vouchers more effective.

Give PHAs More Flexibility. Today.

Give agencies the flexibility to adapt rules so vouchers work better in real housing markets.

8. Increase Funding Pathways to Enhance Supports for Landlords and Tenants

Today: Only “Moving to Work” (MTW) agencies are allowed the financial flexibility to use non-administrative program funds for innovative practices like robust landlord engagements and tenant supports.

With Change: Expand some of this flexibility to non-MTW PHAs as HUD has done with other successful practices to help increase the success of the program.

What They’re Saying

The Housing Choice Voucher program is the cornerstone of federal housing policy and has successfully housed millions of families since its inception in 1974. Today’s housing supply concerns and emerging technologies provide an opportunity to maximize outcomes by adopting program efficiencies and maximizing operational flexibility. Our members welcome the compilation of such recommendations and supportive data offered to further that effort. Thank you to the Cooper Housing Institute for commissioning this important paper.
-Denise Muha, COO/ Executive Director, National Leased Housing Association
Addressing the affordable housing crisis requires a range of solutions to address different income levels, household types and community needs. This study shows that not only is the Housing Choice Voucher program an essential program for addressing the crisis in its own right, but it also plays an important role in supporting other critical programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to make homes deeply affordable for people with the lowest incomes.
-Emily Cadik, Chief Executive Officer, Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition
This report is an insightful look at the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program – which serves millions, but has challenges. The authors offer a comprehensive evaluation of the barriers to full voucher utilization and actionable recommendations for improvement. It is highly recommended reading for housing policy makers and housing professionals.
-Jim Tobin, President & CEO, National Association of Home Builders
Over the past several decades, the Housing Choice Voucher program has helped millions of low-income families affordably rent homes in the private market. But budget uncertainty, rising rents, and administrative obstacles—which have led to declining landlord participation—have kept the program from reaching its full potential. This study offers a thoughtful, data-driven approach to the challenges facing the Housing Choice Voucher program. It presents a range of actionable reforms that can help public housing authorities maximize their budget authority to issue vouchers and ensure that low-income families who receive vouchers are able to utilize them.
-Dennis Shea, Executive Vice President and Chair, J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy, Bipartisan Policy Center
The key takeaways from this research for our team were that the HCV program is, in general, doing a remarkable job of providing critical rental assistance but is hampered by many aspects of the incredibly difficult and unaffordable housing market in the U.S. today. That said, across the country, PHAs have a wealth of collective knowledge about how to best overcome these challenges and the primary goal of our report is to try to make this knowledge and the policies and practices informed by it widely available to PHAs, stakeholders, and policymakers at all levels of government.
-Jason M. Ward, Codirector, RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness
The report aims to highlight the creative and effective ways that local agencies are making the best use of their voucher resources, including how the HCV program is woven into broader efforts to make housing affordable, accessible, and stable for as many families as possible.
-Ryan Finnigan, Deputy Director of Research, Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley
This project was designed through the lens of action to make every voucher count. We asked, what can be done right now, by PHAs, their local partners, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, not what requires yearslong processes. The findings show that practical flexibility, smarter processes, and modest supports can help more families rent housing quickly, bring more landlords to the table, and get more vouchers to families who need them. These recommendations are ripe for action. Any policymakers who are serious about addressing the affordable housing crisis in the U.S. should include these proven solutions in their proposals.
-Will Cooper, Co-founder and President, Cooper Housing Institute
The Housing Choice Voucher program enables public housing agencies to house over 2.3 million families across the United States. While the program already provides benefits to families–in the form of better mental health, better physical health, and higher lifetime wages for children in certain scenarios–there are still ways that the voucher program can be improved. This report offers some best practices for PHAs to consider and common-sense suggestions for how the program can be improved. Allowing PHAs additional financial flexibility to innovate and attract landlords will ensure that the Housing Choice Voucher program continues to effectively serve millions more families into the 21st century.
-Tushar Gurjal, Senior Policy Manager, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO)

Conclusion

The Housing Choice Voucher program remains one of the most powerful tools to address housing instability, but its potential is limited by resources and rigid program rules. This report shows that innovative strategies, stronger landlord and tenant supports, and expanded flexibility for PHAs can significantly improve voucher utilization. By adopting these best practices and encouraging broader collaboration with local partners, communities can ensure more families have access to safe and stable housing.

With thoughtful reforms and sustained investment, the Housing Choice Voucher program can better meet its promise of reducing homelessness and strengthening communities nationwide.