Resources
HUD & affordable housing resources
Authoritative federal links and trusted nonprofits for renters navigating Section 8, public housing, and rural-development assistance.
Federal sources
- HUD.gov — the Department of Housing and Urban Development's main site, with program overviews and contact directories.
- HUD PHA contacts directory — the official, regularly updated list of every Public Housing Agency in the United States. Always verify your local PHA against this list before sending an application.
- HUD User Fair Market Rent dataset — the source of all FMR data on this site. Includes county-level and SAFMR ZIP-level tables.
- HUD User Income Limits — annual income-limit tables broken down by HUD area, with documentation on how 30%, 50%, and 80% AMI thresholds are calculated.
- USDA Rural Development — for very small communities, USDA's Rural Housing Service runs separate rental-assistance programs (Section 515, Section 521) that operate outside HUD's PHA network.
State and local
Most state-level Public Housing Agencies maintain their own application portals and waitlists. City pages on this site currently link directly to the HUD PHA contacts directory above rather than publishing our own per-agency name or phone number, pending a verified data refresh — use that directory to find and confirm the agency that processes Section 8 vouchers in your locality.
Nonprofit and tenant-rights resources
- National Low Income Housing Coalition — research, policy advocacy, and the annual "Out of Reach" report on rental affordability.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — find help with rent and utilities — search tool for emergency rental assistance programs by state.
- LawHelp.org — directory of free legal aid organizations, useful if you're facing eviction or a landlord dispute.
How to use these resources alongside Housing Data Hub
Our city pages are designed to get you to the right official lookup tools quickly. The federal resources above are where you find the actual current numbers and start the actual application. The nonprofit resources are the right next stop if you're facing an immediate crisis — eviction, sudden loss of income, or a dispute with a landlord — that needs help beyond what a long-waitlist voucher program can provide on its own.