Housing application denied? How to appeal, including Section 8

A Section 8 appeal asks the housing office to look again after it turns down your application for a voucher, which pays part of your rent. Write to the housing authority (the local housing office) and ask for an informal review. The deadline usually counts from the date printed on your letter, not the day you opened it.

Why do housing offices deny applications?

A housing office has to turn you down for a few reasons, and federal rules let it choose many more. Your denial notice must give a short reason. Read it first, because the strongest appeal answers that exact reason.

The housing office must turn you down if:

• someone in the household is on a lifetime sex offender registry;
• someone in the household was ever convicted of making meth in federally assisted housing, meaning housing a federal program helps pay for, such as Section 8 and public housing, the apartments a housing office owns;
• someone in the household was evicted from federally assisted housing for drug crime in the last three years, unless the office finds that an exception applies;
• someone in the household is using illegal drugs now, or the office has good reason to believe someone's drug use or alcohol abuse puts other residents at risk;
• someone in the household didn't sign the forms that let the office check your income and other information;
• the household doesn't give the required proof of citizenship or eligible immigration status.

The housing office may also turn you down, if its written rules say so, for:

• owing money to a housing office;
• an eviction from federally assisted housing in the last five years;
• having been dropped from the voucher program before;
• fraud in a federal housing program;
• drug crime, violent crime or other crime that puts neighbors or staff at risk, within a period its rules set.

Even then, the housing office can weigh your situation before it decides. It may consider how serious the problem was and what part each family member played. It may also consider whether a disability played a part, and how a denial would hurt family members who had nothing to do with it. That is why your evidence matters.

For a past crime, a housing office that turned you down may look again if you show that no one in the household has been involved for a reasonable time. A signed statement from you, backed by a probation officer, landlord or social worker, can count once the office checks it. If your denial is about credit, an eviction or a record, read our guide to affordable housing with bad credit, an eviction or a record.

What is the difference between an informal review and an informal hearing?

An informal review is for applicants who are turned down, and an informal hearing is for families who already have a voucher. Both come from the rules of HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, for the Housing Choice Voucher program, the official name for Section 8.

If the housing office wants to end your voucher, it must hold the hearing before it stops paying its part of your rent.

Neither right covers everything. The rules leave out general complaints about the office's policies, such as how it ranks its waitlist. They also leave out a refusal to give you more time to search with your voucher, and a decision not to approve a particular home or lease. A denial over immigration status has its own hearing process.

How and when do you ask for a review or hearing?

Federal rules don't set a number of days. Your housing office's written rules, called its administrative plan, do, and your notice should tell you. They differ from office to office:

• Tacoma, Washington: the plan updated May 21, 2024 gives you 10 business days from the date on the denial notice. Your written request must be postmarked or arrive by then. A family with a voucher has 10 business days to ask for a hearing. When the office is ending a voucher over criminal conduct it sees as a serious threat, the family has three business days.
• Boston: applicants must ask in writing within 20 days of the housing office's decision.

Then follow these steps:

1. Find the date on the notice. The deadline usually counts from there, not from the day you opened it.
2. Ask in writing. Use mail, email or the office's form, whichever your notice names. A phone call alone leaves no record.
3. Keep proof that you asked. Keep a copy of your request, plus a mailing receipt or the sent email.
4. Ask to see the file. At a hearing, you have the right to look at the office's documents about your case beforehand and copy them at your own cost. If the office won't show you a document, it can't use that document at the hearing.
5. Gather your evidence. The next section says what to bring.

What should you bring?

Bring whatever answers the reason on your notice:

• for a debt: proof that you paid, or a repayment agreement;
• for a question about your income or household: pay stubs, benefit letters and a list of who lives with you;
• for a past crime: the signed statement and letters described above;
• for something linked to a disability: a letter from a doctor or other provider. Our guide to reasonable accommodations shows how to ask the office to change a rule for you.

Also bring your notice, a short list of what you disagree with and a timeline of what happened. If an income figure is wrong, our guide to annual recertification shows how housing offices check income.

A sample request letter

Use this sample as a starting point, not as an official form. Put in only facts from your own notice, and use the office's form instead if your notice names one.

[Your name]
[Your address, phone and email]
[Date]

To: [Name of the housing office, and the address or email on your notice]

Re: Request for informal review of the decision dated [date on notice], application number [number, if shown]

I received your notice dated [date] turning down my application. I am asking for an informal review of this decision. The notice gives this reason: [copy the reason exactly].

I disagree because [one or two sentences, for example: the amount you say I owe was paid on (date)]. I will bring [list your documents].

Please send me the date, time and place of the review. Please also send a copy of the documents you relied on, if I am allowed to see them. [If you need it: Because of a disability, I need (the change you need). / I need an interpreter in (language).]

Sincerely, [signature]

Send it the way the notice says, and keep a copy.

Is the NYC housing lottery different?

Yes. The rights above come from the federal voucher rules. A rejection from a New York City lottery, where applications for apartments are put in a random order, follows the city's own rules.

The city's guide for applicants says you have the right to appeal a rejection letter, and the letter says where to send the appeal. You have 10 business days from the postmark on the letter. Write to the building's agent, the company that runs the lottery for the building, explain why the decision is wrong and include papers that show it.

The city's Marketing Handbook, its rule book for lotteries, says a supervisor who didn't make the first decision must review your appeal. Your place in the lottery order is kept while the agent reviews it.

If the appeal succeeds, you get an approval letter or a place on the building's waitlist. If it fails, the agent must send you a letter with detailed reasons. You then have five business days to send a written complaint to the agency named in that letter. That is either HPD, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, or HDC, the city's Housing Development Corporation. Our NYC housing lottery guide covers the whole process.

Other lotteries and building waitlists set their own rules, so read the notice and the written rules of the building or office that turned you down.

Where can you get free legal help?

A legal aid office can help you with the request, the evidence and the hearing for free if your income is low. The Legal Services Corporation pays for legal aid offices across the country, and its search finds the one that covers your address. LawHelp has free legal information and forms by state. Call as soon as you get your notice, so there is time before the deadline.

If the housing office doesn't answer you, HUD's page for voucher holders says to call its Public and Indian Housing Customer Service Center at (800) 955-2232. If that doesn't help, contact your local HUD office.

While you wait, keep applying. The qualify check shows open lotteries and waitlists that fit your household's income limit, the most a household can earn and still qualify. You can also browse open listings or see our New York City page.