Resource Center

Portability

A key feature of the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) is that families choose where they want to live. Voucher holders may live anywhere within the jurisdiction of the public housing agency (PHA) that issues the voucher. The portability feature of the HCVP allows voucher holders to move to the jurisdiction of another PHA and retain their assistance. Portability helps ensure that families can move to neighborhoods with job opportunities, quality schools, and lower concentrations of poverty. However, portability has been restricted or disallowed by some PHAs. Below are materials describing voucher holders’ right to portability.

Articles

NHLP, HUD Issues New Guidance to Ensure Full Implementation of Voucher Portability

This February 2009 NHLP Housing Law Bulletin article describes a new HUD policy affecting portability.

NHLP, Portability Rights of Housing Choice Voucher Participants: An Overview

This August 2008 NHLP Housing Law Bulletin article by Antonia M. Konkoly, NHLP summer intern, provides a summary of the relevant HUD regulations governing portability.

Carissa G. Climaco et al., Portability Moves in the Housing Choice Voucher Program, 1998–2005, 10 Cityscape 1 (2008)

Materials

Sample comments on PHAs’ portability policies

NHLP, HUD Housing Programs: Tenants’ Rights (3d. ed. and 2006-2007 Supp.), Chapter 2, section 2.11.6 (Portability)

Statutes and Regulations

42 U.S.C. § 1437f(r) Portability

24 C.F.R. Part 982 Subpart H—Where a Family Can Live and Move

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=053036907a5acc6...

HUD, Voucher Program Guidebook: Housing Choice, 7420.10G (April 2001), Chapter 2, Expanding Housing Opportunities and Mobility

http://www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm?/offices/adm/hudclips/guidebo...

HUD, Housing Choice Voucher Portability Procedures and Corrective Actions, PIH 2008-43 (HA) (Dec. 3, 2008)