Congress created Section 8 rental assistance in the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, and the current voucher program took shape in 1998. Local public housing agencies run it with money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The voucher pays the difference between the tenant's share and a set rent level. About 2.3 million households use vouchers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Because funding is limited, waiting lists often stretch for years, and many lists are closed. Having a voucher is no guarantee of a home. Many landlords refuse voucher holders, a practice called source-of-income discrimination. A growing number of states and cities ban it, but enforcement varies.
Vouchers were meant to give families more choice than public housing. In practice, voucher holders, who are disproportionately Black, are often steered to the same segregated, high-poverty neighborhoods. Programs that help families move to lower-poverty areas have shown long-term gains for children, which is why advocates push for both more vouchers and stronger fair housing enforcement.