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Federal housing vouchers support one in 11 renter households in Massachusetts, but rising housing costs are limiting the program’s reach, according to a new report on the local effects of the Housing Choice Voucher program.
Also known as Section 8, the program provided rental assistance to more than 92,000 households in the Bay State as of last fall, Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association noted in a report released this week.
“Lots of landlords would not be able to rent their apartments without it, and lots of people would not be able to be here without it, period,” said Jennifer Gilbert, the Musicant Cohen executive director of CHAPA’s Housing Policy Action Center.
The program plays an important role in housing stability, the report said, enabling residents to live in private rental housing while public housing and income-restricted units in private developments have long waiting lists.
Under the Section 8 program, tenants pay 30 percent of their income toward rent, with participation capped at households earning a maximum 80 percent of area median income. Vouchers issued by local housing authorities make up the difference with market rent.
According to research by CHAPA’s Housing Policy Action Center, participants remain in the program an average of nine years, reflecting the state’s high housing costs. The income-to-rent gap is largest in the city of Boston, where median apartment rents are $2,196 but Section 8 households have an average income of $15,966.
Participation is spread broadly across the state, with nearly half of participants living in Greater Boston, 13 percent in central Massachusetts and Cape Cod, and 9 percent in western Massachusetts.
Most of the participants use mobile vouchers, which can be used anywhere in the state. Project-based vouchers are issued to subsidized developments, such as those approved under the Chapter 40B zoning law, but account for only 19 percent of the overall program.
As part of an update to Boston’s inclusionary development policy in 2024, developers of large projects are required to reserve 3 percent for voucher holders.
In January, Congressional appropriators restored proposed Trump administration cuts to the program, and President Donald Trump this week signed a funding bill that includes an 8.7 percent increase in the Section 8 program, to $35 billion.
“People are afraid to celebrate victories right now but the recent vote looks like an increase. If rents continue to go up, an increase doesn’t necessarily mean you can serve more people,” Gilbert said.
The Trump administration had previously considered a full-time work requirement for Section 8 participants, but CHAPA research indicates that 68 percent of the state’s Section 8 households have wage income. The data excluded households with elderly and disabled individuals.
