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

Miami has no single Section 8 list. Five housing offices each run their own voucher program and waitlist, the line of people waiting for a voucher: Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah and Homestead. A Section 8 voucher pays part of your rent on an apartment you choose. Each office opens its list for only a short time, so watch each one.

Who runs Section 8 in Miami?

Section 8 is the everyday name for the Housing Choice Voucher program. HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, pays for it. The housing authority (the local housing office) runs it: it keeps the waitlist, checks who qualifies and pays your landlord. HUD's list of Florida housing offices includes these five in the Miami area:

To see which lists are open today, check our Florida waitlists page and each office's own page.

How does a Miami Section 8 list open?

A Miami Section 8 list opens for a short time, often a week or two. When an office opens its list, federal rules say it must announce where and when to apply in a local newspaper and in other ways. When Miami-Dade County opened its list in 2024 and Hialeah in 2017, both picked names at random:

• Miami-Dade County, 2024. The county announced the opening on January 18, 2024 and took applications online only, for 15 days, from February 5 to February 19. On March 18, 2024, a computer picked 5,000 applications at random for the list, the county's questions and answers say.
• Hialeah, 2017. Hialeah took 60,919 applications online from April 21 to May 4, 2017. Then it picked 2,500 in a lottery, a random drawing, to put on its list: about 4 in every 100 applicants. Applying on the first day gave no better chance than applying on the last.

So when a list opens, read that office's notice to see how it will pick names, and apply before the deadline.

How do you apply for Section 8 in Miami?

1. Choose the offices that cover where you want to live. HUD says you can apply to several, and you don't have to live in the area where you apply.
2. Watch each office's page and the newspapers above. Use only the web address on the office's own page.
3. Have ready the full legal name, birth date, Social Security number and income of everyone in your household.
4. Apply online during the window, once per household. Miami-Dade County didn't allow a second application from the same household.
5. Save or print your confirmation number. You use it to check whether you were picked.

Being picked puts you on the list; it doesn't give you a voucher yet. When your name comes up, the office checks that you qualify at an interview. Miami-Dade County asks for a photo ID, Social Security cards, birth certificates, proof of all income and savings, and the names of your last three landlords.

Keep your mailing address and phone number up to date with each office. Miami-Dade County takes you off the list if you don't answer its letters or a letter comes back undelivered.

Some households move up the list. Miami-Dade County's 2024 rules gave priority to these groups, among others, when it ranked applicants:

• families whose vouchers ended because the county ran out of money;
• people forced to move by a disaster or by government action;
• people who are homeless;
• veterans;
• people with disabilities who qualify for Mainstream vouchers, a separate federal voucher program;
• county residents.

When a list opens again, look for the same question on the application, and answer it if one fits you.

What income limits apply?

To get a voucher, your household's income generally must be at or under 50% of the area median income, the middle income for the area. That is the income limit, the most a household can earn and still qualify. HUD's 2026 limits for Miami-Dade County took effect May 1, 2026, with a median family income of $89,800. The limits are higher than a plain share of that median, because HUD raises them where rents are high compared with incomes, as they are in Miami:

Each year, at least 75% of the families an office newly admits from its waitlist must have extremely low incomes, at or under the 30% limit. Limits change every year, so check the limit in the office's own notice when its list opens.

A worked example. A household of three earns $55,000 a year. That is under the 50% limit of $61,300, so it can apply. It is above the 30% limit of $36,800, and most new vouchers go to households under that line, so its wait could be longer.

How much rent do you pay with a voucher?

With a voucher, your base payment is about 30% of your monthly income after HUD's deductions. The voucher limit for your area, officially the payment standard, is the highest rent plus utilities a home can have while you pay only your base payment. When the rent plus utilities is at or under the voucher limit, your base payment covers your utilities and part of the rent. The housing office pays your landlord the rest. If it is higher, you also pay everything above the voucher limit.

For example, if your income after deductions is $2,000 a month, your base payment is about $600. When you first rent a home with the voucher, what you pay can't be more than 40% of that income, or $800. So ask the housing office for the voucher limit for your number of bedrooms, and look for a home whose rent plus utilities is close to it or under it.

If a landlord in Miami-Dade County turns you down because you would pay with a voucher, the county's human rights law may protect you. File a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights.

What can you do while you wait?

• Apartments the county helped pay for. Miami-Dade County's Affordable Housing Resources page lists buildings it helped fund. Each building keeps its own waitlist, so call each one and ask whether it takes vouchers.
• City of Miami notices. The city posts notices from new buildings that got city help, and tells you to contact each building directly.
• Public housing. Miami-Dade County also owns apartments it rents out at about 30% of your income, with a separate public housing waitlist. Our guide to the public housing waitlist explains how those lists work.

How do you avoid Section 8 scams?

A housing office can't charge you to apply for a Section 8 voucher. The Federal Trade Commission warns that fake sites copy real ones, ask for money and Social Security numbers, and leave you off the real list. Apply only through the web address on the housing office's own page, and never pay a fee, wire money or buy a prepaid card to join a list.

For your next step, check our Florida waitlists page for open lists, see listings on our Florida page, and use the qualify check to see which fit your household's income. Our guides to Section 8 waitlists that are open and how to get Section 8 faster cover more ways in.