Section 8 in Dallas: waitlists, vouchers and how to apply

Dallas Section 8 vouchers, which pay part of your rent to a private landlord, come from the Dallas Housing Authority (DHA). You send DHA a pre-application, a short first form, online. It stays in DHA's pool for up to 18 months. When DHA has money for more vouchers, it picks names by lottery, a random drawing, and emails the people it picks.

Who runs Section 8 in Dallas?

The Dallas Housing Authority is the housing authority (the local housing office) for the city of Dallas. It gives out vouchers across seven North Texas counties: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall and Tarrant. It also runs public housing, apartments it owns and rents out at about 30% of your income, in 31 properties.

Some nearby cities and Dallas County keep their own voucher waitlists, lines you join now for a voucher that comes free later. You can be on DHA's pool and on these lists at the same time. They open only now and then, so check each office's page:

To see which Texas lists are taking names today, check our Texas waitlists page. For the rest of the state, find the housing office for any Texas city.

How do DHA's pre-application pool and lottery work?

DHA keeps one pool of pre-applications instead of opening its list for a few days. Check its voucher page to see whether it is taking pre-applications today. Each one stays in the pool until you are picked or for up to 18 months. When DHA has money for more vouchers, it picks people from the pool at random. If 18 months pass without your name coming up, send a new pre-application.

DHA's public housing also uses a pool, with a separate pre-application where you choose the properties you want. Since July 13, 2026, DHA runs a lottery each week for a set of properties with empty apartments and posts the schedule on its lottery updates page. After each lottery, DHA emails everyone who applied for those properties to say whether they were picked, so check the email address you used.

How do you apply to the Dallas Housing Authority?

1. Register on DHA's RentCafe portal, using the Applicant Portal Login button on DHA's how-to-apply page, and send the pre-application for the Housing Choice Voucher program. You need a working email address and the names and ages of everyone in your household. DHA says it takes about 20 minutes.
2. Watch your email. DHA tells you by email if you are picked.
3. Finish the full application within 14 days if you are picked. DHA asks for proof of income, bank statements and Social Security information.
4. Take the orientation on Bob.ai, the second website DHA uses for people who have been picked, and get your voucher.
5. Find a home within 90 days. You can ask for a 30-day extension. If you don't find a home in time, you have to send a new pre-application.
6. Fill in the tenancy request with your landlord on Bob.ai. DHA inspects the home, and then you sign the lease.

Before a list opens or your name comes up, get your documents ready.

What are the 2026 income limits for Dallas Section 8?

To get a voucher in Dallas, most households' yearly income before taxes must be at or under the very low income limit, $60,550 for four people in 2026. An income limit is the most a household can earn and still qualify. Federal rules let a housing office admit some families up to the low limit under its own rules, so ask if your income is in between. HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, sets these limits for the Dallas area, which includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Kaufman and Rockwall counties, effective May 1, 2026:

In Tarrant County, which is in HUD's Fort Worth area, the limits are lower: the very low limit for four people is $55,150.

The extremely low limit is 60% of the very low limit, or the federal poverty guideline if that is higher. Each year, at least 75% of the families a housing office newly gives vouchers to must be at or under the extremely low limit. So if your income is above it, expect a longer wait.

How much rent do you pay with a Dallas voucher?

You pay about 30% of your income toward rent and utilities, DHA says, and DHA pays the landlord the rest of the rent. DHA sets a voucher limit, officially the payment standard, for each home size. It is the highest rent plus utilities a home can have while you pay only that 30%.

If a home costs more, you pay the extra too. When you first rent it, what you pay can't be more than 40% of your monthly income after set deductions. Ask DHA for the voucher limit for your home size before you sign a lease.

A project-based voucher lowers the rent on one apartment in a particular building. DHA gives these to households under 50% of the area median income, the middle income in the area. You pay 30% of your income after set deductions. If you move out in your first year, you lose the lower rent. After a year, federal rules let you ask DHA for a voucher you can take to a home you choose, so ask before you give notice.

Can a Texas landlord refuse a voucher?

Usually, yes. No Texas law makes landlords accept vouchers. The Texas Fair Housing Act bans turning you away because of race, religion and similar reasons, but where your rent money comes from is not on that list. A 2015 state law, Senate Bill 267, also stops cities and counties from making landlords accept vouchers. There are two exceptions:

• Most tax credit buildings. These apartments get a federal tax break for keeping rents low, and federal law bars most of them from refusing you because you have a voucher. They can still screen you on their other rules.
• Some housing in the city of Dallas. Dallas's fair housing law bars refusing a voucher at housing that got money or another subsidy approved by the city council since the city added this rule.

Ask a landlord whether it accepts vouchers before you tour, and find apartments that accept Section 8.

How do you avoid Section 8 scams in Dallas?

Never pay anyone to put you on a list. HUD's inspector general says housing offices never ask for money to join a waitlist, and it warns of fake waitlist posts on social media. Start DHA's application only from DHA's own website, not from a link in a message. To report fraud, call the HUD inspector general's hotline at 1-800-347-3735.

What should you do next?

Send DHA's pre-application, then check which Texas lists are open and join them too. Apply for other lower-rent homes on our Texas page, and use our qualify check to see which listings fit your household's size and income.