If you have a federal housing choice voucher (Section 8) and want to move to a different area, the local housing authority there is supposed to accept your voucher — but some agencies with unused budget authority drag their feet. This bill would require any housing agency using less than 95% of its budget to absorb incoming vouchers from families moving in, and it caps how long the new agency can bill the original one at 12 months. It's aimed at making voucher portability work better, especially for families moving to rural areas where housing authorities may be underutilizing their funding.
Congressional Summary
Rural Housing Accessibility ActThis bill requires a public housing agency (PHA) that uses less than 95% of its budget authority in a given year to accept a housing choice voucher from a family that received the voucher from an agency in a different jurisdiction. The PHA that accepts the voucher (1) must make assistance payments to the family under an annual contributions contract, and (2) may not bill the initial PHA for the assistance payments for more than 12 months.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-03-24
- Date Added
- 2026-04-06