Housing Programs

Tenant-based Section 8 vouchers help approximately 12,000 households with low incomes rent homes on the private market. With a voucher, tenants pay at least 28 percent, but generally not more than 40 percent, of their household income for rent and utilities. KCHA pays the difference between the tenant’s portion of the rent and the amount requested by the landlord. To enable greater geographic choice and access to areas with higher levels of economic and educational opportunity, our payment standards are higher in areas where rents are higher.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and managed by KCHA, tenants who qualify can use a voucher to rent from any landlord in King County willing to take part in the program. Because the demand for vouchers is very high, the waiting list is most often closed to new applications. KCHA generally opens the list every two to three years.

More than 2,850 tenant-based vouchers and 410 project-based vouchers target people with special needs, including homeless families. KCHA’s partner agencies connect households in need with this type of housing. Families transitioning to economic self-sufficiency, disabled households, and families who may be separated from their children because of a lack of adequate housing use these special vouchers. Homeless people, domestic violence victims, and terminally ill people may also be eligible.