Affordable housing with bad credit, an eviction or a record

You can still get affordable housing with bad credit, an eviction or a criminal record, but it depends on who screens you. For Section 8 vouchers, which pay part of your rent, and public housing, the local housing office decides, within a short list of bars that federal rules require. In tax credit buildings, the owner sets its own screening policy.

How does each kind of housing screen?

Who checks your past, and what they can count, depends on the kind of housing.

Public housing is apartments the housing office owns and rents out. A tax credit building is a privately owned building that keeps rents low in return for federal tax credits. Federally assisted housing means housing that a federal program helps pay for, such as public housing, Section 8 vouchers and Section 8 buildings. HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, writes the rules for vouchers and public housing. Our guide to Section 8 requirements covers the rest of the eligibility test.

Which bars are required?

For vouchers and public housing, a housing office must turn down a household in these cases, under HUD's rule for vouchers and its rule for public housing:

• An eviction for drug crime. If anyone in the household was evicted from federally assisted housing for drug crime, the bar lasts three years from the eviction. The housing office may still let you in if that person finished an approved drug treatment program. It may also let you in if the situation has ended, for example because the person has died or is in prison.
• Current illegal drug use, or good reason to believe someone's drug use may put other residents at risk.
• Making meth in federally assisted housing. A conviction for making methamphetamine in federally assisted housing bars the household for life.
• Lifetime sex offender registration. The housing office must check the registries in its own state and in other states where household members have lived.
• Alcohol abuse that may put other residents at risk, if the housing office has good reason to believe it.

What can the housing office decide for itself?

Beyond those required bars, the housing office can make its own rules. It may turn you down for drug crime, violent crime or other crime that puts neighbors or staff at risk. That applies only to crime within a period the office sets in its written plan. It may also turn you down if:

• anyone in the household was evicted from federally assisted housing in the last five years;
• you owe money to a housing office from Section 8 or public housing;
• anyone in the household committed fraud in a federal housing program.

The housing office can also weigh your situation. For vouchers, it can consider how serious the problem was, who was involved and how a denial would hurt family members who had no part in it. For public housing, it must consider when the conduct happened, what it was and how far it went, and it may consider proof that things have changed. Ask the housing office for its written plan, often called the administrative plan for vouchers, to see which of these rules it uses and for how long.

What about bad credit?

For vouchers, no federal rule sets a credit score. The landlord you want to rent from does the screening. The rule lets the landlord look at how you paid rent and utility bills, how you cared for past homes and how you treated neighbors. For public housing, the housing office may look at how you paid your bills, especially rent.

In tax credit and other income-restricted buildings, the owner sets the policy. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which oversees the tax credits, has a guide for tax credit buildings that covers income, rent and fair housing, and it sets no credit rule. A listing that doesn't mention a credit check may still run one, so ask the building's office for its written screening policy before you pay an application fee. Our guide to tax credit apartments explains how these buildings work.

Some places don't check credit for some applicants. New York City runs housing lotteries, where applications for lower-rent apartments are put in a random order. In those lotteries, the marketing agent, the company that runs the lottery for the building, can't run a credit check on applicants who have a voucher or other rent help, under the city's 2026 rule book. Other applicants can choose to show 12 months of rent payments, such as rent receipts or bank statements, instead of a credit check. Our New York City page shows what is open there.

What about an eviction?

For vouchers and public housing, an eviction matters in two ways. An eviction from federally assisted housing for drug crime brings the three-year bar. For vouchers, any eviction from federally assisted housing in the last five years lets the housing office turn you down, but it doesn't have to.

If you owe money to a housing office, it can turn you down for that too. It can also offer you a repayment plan instead, so ask for one.

In a tax credit building, a past eviction counts or not under the owner's own policy.

Which apartments accept an eviction on your record?

No rule makes a building accept an applicant with an eviction, and there is no official list of the buildings that do. Each building and housing office decides. Ask each one for its policy in writing, and ask whether it looks at the reason for the eviction and how long ago it happened.

What about a criminal record?

For vouchers and public housing, the rules give you some protections.

• You see the record first. Before a housing office turns you down because of a criminal record, it must give you, and the person the record is about, a copy. You then get a chance to show that the record is wrong or doesn't matter. For vouchers, this happens at an informal review, a meeting with someone at the office who didn't make the first decision.
• The check is free for public housing. A housing office can't charge you for the criminal records check when you apply for public housing.
• For vouchers, a past denial isn't final. A housing office that turned you down for a voucher before may look again if you show that no one in the household has been involved in crime for a reasonable time. A signed statement from you, backed by a probation officer, landlord, neighbor or social worker, can count once the office checks it.

Tax credit buildings and other private owners must follow the federal Fair Housing Act, which the IRS guide says applies to tax credit buildings. Some states and cities have their own laws that limit how landlords use criminal records. A local legal aid office can tell you what applies where you live.

What should you do before you apply?

1. Get your own records first. Get your free credit reports through the official site the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau names. For a court or eviction record, ask the clerk of the court in the county where the case was heard. Ask to have any errors fixed before you apply.
2. Ask for the written policy. For a building, ask its office. For a voucher or public housing, ask the housing office. Ask what it checks, how far back it looks and what it counts against you.
3. Gather proof that things have changed. Wherever the building or housing office gets to decide, proof can help: a certificate from a treatment program, a repayment plan, a record of paying rent on time, and letters from people who know you.
4. Apply to several kinds of housing. Our guides on how to qualify for affordable housing and Section 8 versus income-restricted housing show your options.
5. If you're turned down, ask for the reason and a review in writing. Our guide on appealing an affordable housing denial shows the steps and the deadlines.

Then look for places to apply. Our listings page shows apartments you can apply for now, including waitlists, lists you join now for an apartment that comes free later. The qualify check compares your household's income with each listing's income limit, the most a household can earn and still rent there.