Section 8 in Houston: how the waitlists work and how to apply

To get Section 8 in Houston, the federal program whose vouchers pay part of your rent to a private landlord, apply to Housing Alliance HTX, formerly the Houston Housing Authority. Its voucher list takes new applications only when it opens. Create an account on Rent Café, its online application site, now, and check our Texas waitlists page for today's status.

Who runs Section 8 in Houston?

Housing Alliance HTX is the housing authority (the local housing office) for the city of Houston. Some of its pages and letters still say Houston Housing Authority or Housing Alliance Houston. It runs:

• Section 8 vouchers, which you use at a home you rent from a private landlord who accepts them.
• Public housing, the apartment communities it owns, where you pay no more than 30% of your income after deductions in rent.
• Project-based vouchers: a project-based voucher lowers the rent on one apartment in a particular building while you live there.
• Tax credit and mixed-income communities: apartments with lower rents for households earning under a set amount, some mixed with full-price apartments. Each property sets its own rents and keeps its own waitlist, the line of people waiting for the next free apartment.

Under a federal program called Moving to Work, it sets some of its own rules instead of the usual rules of HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. So its rent rules can differ from the ones below. Its office is at 2640 Fountain View Drive, Houston, Texas 77057, and its main phone is 713-260-0500. For voucher questions, call its voucher call center at 713-260-0600.

How do Houston's Section 8 and public housing waitlists open?

Housing Alliance HTX opens each of its own waitlists only for a short window, and it announces each opening on its website. You apply only online, through Rent Café, its online application site, and you need an account to apply, update your details or check your status. Creating the account doesn't put you on any list, so log back in and apply while the list is open.

In 2026, about 56,000 people applied to eight of its public housing lists. It used a lottery, a random drawing, to add about 10,000 of them to the lists, roughly 1 in 6. That is 10,000 places in line, not 10,000 apartments.

To see which Texas lists are taking names today, check our Texas waitlists page.

What happens when your name is picked?

When your name is picked from the voucher list, Housing Alliance HTX emails you a packet of forms to fill in and return by a stated deadline. People on the list get a lottery postcard first; keep it somewhere safe. Being picked lets the office check whether you qualify; it doesn't promise you a voucher. You then have an interview, go to a briefing on how the voucher works and pass background checks before you get the voucher.

Have these papers ready, because missing or late forms can get you taken off the list:

• a photo ID for each adult;
• a birth certificate or passport for each household member;
• a Social Security card for each household member who has one.

Tell the office in writing every time your address or household changes. You can update your details in the Rent Café portal.

How much rent do you pay with a Houston voucher?

You usually pay about 30% of your monthly income toward rent and utilities. Your income is counted after HUD's deductions, such as amounts for children and medical costs. Housing Alliance HTX pays the landlord the rest.

That works as long as the rent plus utilities is at or under the office's voucher limit for your size of home, officially the payment standard. The voucher limit is the highest rent plus utilities a home can have while you pay only about 30%. In Houston, the voucher limit also depends on the home's ZIP code. On its 2026 payment standards sheet, the two-bedroom limit is $1,628 in the higher-rent ZIP codes the sheet calls Tier A and $1,357 in all its other ZIP codes. The sheet lists which ZIP codes are in each tier.

Example. Your income after deductions is $2,000 a month, so your base payment, the least you pay each month, is 30% of it: $600. You find a two-bedroom where the rent plus utilities is $1,500, in a ZIP code with a $1,357 voucher limit. The voucher pays $757, which is $1,357 minus your $600. You pay $743: your $600 plus the $143 above the voucher limit. When you first rent a home with a voucher, your part can't be more than 40% of your monthly income after deductions, $800 here, so this home is allowed.

What are the 2026 income limits in Houston?

For four people in the Houston area, the 2026 very low limit is $52,000 a year. An income limit is the most your household can earn in a year, before taxes, and still qualify. HUD sets three limits for the area, which covers Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties. They took effect May 1, 2026:

Most new voucher holders must earn at or under the very low limits. Federal rules let an office admit some families up to the low limit under its own rules, so ask if your income falls in between. Its public housing generally takes households earning up to the low limit.

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 new vouchers go to households at or under the extremely low limit. So households above it are passed over more often.

Can a Houston landlord refuse a voucher?

Usually, yes. No Texas law makes landlords accept vouchers, and a 2015 state law stops cities and counties from making rules that require it. Tax credit buildings are apartments that get a federal tax break for keeping rents low. Most of them can't refuse you just because you have a voucher, but they can still screen you on their other rules. Ask each landlord whether it accepts vouchers before you pay an application fee.

How do you avoid Section 8 scams in Houston?

A housing office can't charge you to apply for a Section 8 voucher, public housing or a project-based voucher. HUD's inspector general warns about social media posts that falsely announce a list opening and then ask for money or personal details. Check any opening on Housing Alliance HTX's own website or by calling 713-260-0500, and apply only through its Rent Café portal.

What should you do next?

1. Create your Rent Café account on the office's website now, so you can apply on the first day of the next opening.
2. Check Housing Alliance HTX's website and the Texas lists taking names today often.
3. Call the tax credit and mixed-income communities near you and ask to join their waitlists.
4. Gather your documents so you can return your packet before the deadline.

See the Texas listings you can apply for now, and use our qualify check to see which ones fit your household. Join other Texas Section 8 lists too, and once you have a voucher, find apartments that accept Section 8.