About RentAssist Guide
An independent, free guide to U.S. rental assistance programs. No accounts. No upsells. No "lead generation." Just the underlying public information, organized so you can find it.
Why this site exists
The federal rental assistance system is one of the largest social programs in the United States — roughly $54 billion in annual federal spending across HUD and USDA, serving 4.7 million households through some combination of Section 8 vouchers, public housing, project-based Section 8, LIHTC properties, and supportive housing programs. Most of the people who could qualify for it never apply, mostly because the system is genuinely confusing: each program has its own application, its own waiting list, its own funder, and its own income rules.
Search engines don't help much. Search for "Section 8 in [my city]" and the top results are usually lead-generation sites, classified scams, and PHA homepages designed to discourage applications by listing only the closed waiting lists. We built RentAssist Guide to be the simple, comprehensive starting point we wished existed when family members started navigating these programs.
How we organize the data
The site is structured along three axes:
- By state — each state page lists the Public Housing Agencies serving that state, the state-level Area Median Income, the resulting income limits at the 30%, 50%, and 80% AMI tiers, and the major metros within the state.
- By metro — each metro page lists the Fair Market Rents (the cap on Section 8 voucher value) and the PHAs operating in that metro.
- By program — each program page explains what the program does, who qualifies, and how to apply, in plain English.
We are not affiliated with HUD, USDA, the VA, or any state housing agency. All data is summarized from those agencies' published datasets. See the methodology page for the specific sources and how the figures on each page are derived.
What this site does not do
We do not take applications. Every application has to be made directly to a Public Housing Agency or a property owner. If a website asks you to "apply for Section 8" through them and pay a fee, it is not a legitimate program — federal rental assistance applications are always free.
We do not store personal information. No accounts, no forms, no tracking beyond standard analytics. The site is read-only.
We do not give legal advice. The eligibility and waiting list rules described here are summaries. For an authoritative determination, contact the PHA you are applying to or a tenant attorney through LawHelp.org.
Updates
HUD publishes new Income Limits and Fair Market Rents tables each year (usually in the spring and fall, respectively). We refresh the site's data when those updates are released. Program eligibility rules change less often, but we revise the explanatory pages whenever HUD issues new guidance.