The Housing Choice Voucher Program provides housing assistance for low-income families in the private rental market. Rental voucher holders select a unit from the private rental market. Rental assistance makes market-rate housing affordable. Program participants pay 30% but no more than 40% of their monthly adjusted income towards rent and utilities. The housing assistance payment subsidizes the balance of the rent to the property owner.
Eligibility for a rental voucher is determined by the Warren Metropolitan Housing Authority (WMHA) based on the total annual gross income and family size and is limited to U.S. citizens and specified categories of non-citizens who have eligible immigration status. The family’s income may not exceed 50% of the area median income. Median income levels are published by HUD annually and vary by location. The WMHA can provide you with the income limits for your area and family size. During the application process, the WMHA will collect information on family income, assets and family composition. The WMHA will verify this information with other local agencies, your employer and bank, and will use the information to determine program eligibility and the amount of the rental assistance payment.
If the WMHA determines that your family is eligible, the WMHA will put your name on a waiting list, unless it is able to assist you immediately. Once your name is reached the top of the list, the WMHA will contact you and issue to you a rental voucher for a certain amount of funding based on the family’s income. Please note: Due to waiting times for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, applications may not always be available. When applications are available both individuals and families are may apply for assistance.
Once your family has been issued a rental voucher, you can search the private rental market in your community for a housing unit that is decent, safe and sanitary according to Housing Quality Standards (HQS) established by HUD and the WMHA. When you have found a suitable unit and the owner agrees to lease the unit to your family under the housing choice voucher program, the WMHA will inspect the unit to assure that it is suitable. After the unit passes HQS inspection and the rent has been approved, the landlord and tenant enter into a lease for an initial term of one year. The WMHA and the landlord sign a Housing Assistance Payments Contract through which the rent is assisted on your behalf. You will be responsible for the monthly payment of the difference between the total rent and the housing assistance payment.
A family’s housing needs change over time with changes in family size, job locations, and for other reasons. The Housing Choice Voucher Program is designed to allow families to move without the loss of rental assistance. Moves are permissible as long as the family notifies the housing authority ahead of time, terminates its existing lease within the appropriate provisions, and finds acceptable alternate housing.
Landlords with available rental units are encouraged to contact the Warren Metropolitan Housing Authority and place their units onto our Landlord List. The Landlord List is distributed to new applicants and existing program participants who are interested in transferring to a new rental unit. It’s quick, simple, and easy to list your unit with the Housing Authority.