Emergency Housing Voucher: Eligibility, Referrals, and Rent

An emergency housing voucher is federally funded rental assistance for people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or fleeing domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking. The program was created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which sent $5 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to distribute vouchers through local housing authorities.¹ It works like the regular Section 8 voucher once you have it, but you can’t just walk in and apply. You have to be referred by a community organization, and the number of vouchers left to give out is shrinking.

What Is Left of the Program in 2026

The EHV program was designed as a one-time emergency response, not an ongoing benefit. Under federal law, housing authorities cannot reissue any voucher that a family returned or stopped using after September 30, 2023. Every time a household leaves the program, the total pool of active vouchers gets smaller. HUD has said that improper reissuance “undermines HUD’s efforts to protect currently housed EHV families for as long as possible.”²

If you already hold an EHV, the voucher keeps covering rent as long as funding lasts and your household remains eligible. If you are hoping to get a new one, be realistic. Most housing authorities have already leased up their full allocation, and HUD projects the program’s funding will be depleted within the next few years. The rules below still apply to anyone already in the referral pipeline or holding a voucher.

Who Qualifies

Eligibility is much narrower than the regular Housing Choice Voucher program. You must fall into one of four HUD categories:

Homeless — you lack a fixed nighttime residence, live in a shelter, or sleep in a place not meant for habitation, such as a car, park, or abandoned building.³
At risk of homelessness — you will lose your home within 14 days, have no backup residence identified, and lack the resources to find one.³
Fleeing violence or trafficking — you are escaping domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, or human trafficking.³
Recently homeless — you left homelessness with temporary help such as shelter assistance or short-term rental aid, and losing that support would put you back on the street.³

You also have to meet the income limits that apply to the regular voucher program. Your household income cannot exceed the low-income threshold for your area, which is tied to the local area median income. There is no floor. Households with zero income still qualify, and if a small minimum rent (typically $25 to $50 per month) is unaffordable, you can request a hardship exemption.⁴

How to Get a Referral

You cannot apply to a housing authority directly for an EHV. Public Housing Agencies only accept EHV applicants through referrals from community partners.⁵

Referrals come through two channels. Most are made by the local Continuum of Care (CoC) through its Coordinated Entry System, the community’s centralized process for assessing and prioritizing people who need housing help. In more limited situations, Victim Service Providers can refer people fleeing violence or trafficking directly.⁵

The Coordinated Entry System uses a standardized assessment to rank how urgently each person needs help. Length of homelessness, health conditions, and overall vulnerability all feed into that ranking, and the people at the top of the list get referrals first. This is where the limited supply really matters. You might clearly meet one of the four categories yet not score high enough on the vulnerability assessment to receive a referral before the remaining vouchers are gone.

To enter the Coordinated Entry System, contact a local homeless services provider, call 211, or reach out to your area’s CoC. If you’re fleeing violence, a domestic violence hotline or shelter can connect you with a Victim Service Provider that handles referrals separately from the general CoC process.

Documents You’ll Need

After a referral, the housing authority will ask for documentation. A typical file includes Social Security cards for every household member, government-issued photo ID for adults, and proof of citizenship or eligible immigration status. Pay stubs or benefit letters help the agency calculate your rent share.

The EHV program is built for people who often don’t have neat paperwork. HUD waived the standard requirement for third-party income verification and lets housing authorities accept your own written statement (a self-certification) as the highest form of proof at intake.³ That applies both to your income and to your status as homeless or a survivor of violence. The housing authority may follow up later for supporting documents, but missing paperwork at the front end should not delay your voucher.

What Cannot Be Held Against You

In the standard voucher program, applicants are often denied for prior evictions, old debts, or criminal history. EHV strips away most of those barriers. A housing authority cannot deny your EHV application based on:

A past eviction from federally assisted housing within the last five years
A previous termination of housing assistance for any family member
An outstanding debt to any housing authority for rent, damages, or other charges
A broken repayment agreement with a housing authority⁶

HUD also removed the housing authority’s ability to deny EHV applicants for drug-related criminal activity, a common disqualifier in the regular voucher program. Any other grounds for denial must first be discussed with the housing authority’s CoC partner, and each denial has to rest on an individualized look at the applicant’s circumstances rather than a blanket rule.⁶

One practical note. A housing authority can’t deny your application for old debts, but it can ask you to sign a repayment agreement after you’re admitted. If you refuse the agreement or stop honoring it, that can be grounds for terminating your voucher later.

Help With Move-In Costs

Coming up with first month’s rent, a security deposit, and utility hookup fees is one of the biggest obstacles for someone leaving homelessness. Each housing authority received $3,500 in service fees per voucher to help clear those barriers.⁷ The money can go toward:

Security deposits and utility connection fees for gas, electric, water, and similar services
Rental application fees
Moving expenses
Essential household items to set up a home
Renter’s insurance if the lease requires it
Housing search assistance⁷

HUD later expanded these funds to cover utility arrears when unpaid balances would prevent you from getting service at a new address, and rental arrears owed to a private landlord if the debt is blocking a new lease. Service fees cannot be used to pay off debts you owe to a housing authority.⁸

Not every housing authority offers every service or applies them the same way. Each spells out in its administrative plan which expenses it will cover and under what conditions, so ask directly what is on the table.

What You’ll Pay in Rent

EHV holders pay rent under the same formula as the regular voucher program. You generally owe about 30% of your adjusted monthly income. The voucher covers the difference between your share and the actual rent, up to the local payment standard set by your housing authority. If a unit’s rent exceeds the payment standard, you pay the gap yourself, so a unit at or below the payment standard keeps your out-of-pocket cost lowest.

If your income is very low or zero, the housing authority sets a minimum rent, usually between $25 and $50 per month. When even that causes hardship (a sudden loss of income, unexpected medical costs, or similar), you can request a hardship exemption. The housing authority must suspend the minimum rent starting the month after you request it while it evaluates your situation.⁴ If the exemption is later denied, you’ll owe the suspended rent back, so submit any documentation of your hardship promptly.

Finding a Unit

Once your voucher is issued, you have at least 120 days to find a rental unit. That’s double the minimum search time for standard vouchers, and it reflects the extra barriers EHV holders often run into.³

Any unit you choose has to pass a Housing Quality Standards inspection. An inspector from the housing authority checks items like working smoke detectors, secure locks, functioning plumbing and heating, and overall structural condition. If the unit fails, the landlord can make repairs and schedule a re-inspection. You cannot sign the lease and start receiving assistance until the unit passes.

The housing search is where many voucher holders hit a wall. Some landlords won’t accept vouchers, and in tight markets competition is fierce. Use any housing search assistance your housing authority offers through the service fees. Your caseworker or CoC contact may keep lists of landlords who have worked with voucher holders before.

Moving to Another Area Later

EHVs come with portability rights. You can use the voucher to rent in a different housing authority’s jurisdiction. You tell your current housing authority you want to move and where you’re headed, and the receiving PHA has to accept you. It can’t refuse an incoming portable family or redirect you elsewhere.⁹

The receiving housing authority issues you a new voucher lasting at least 30 days past the expiration of your original one, and it recalculates your unit size under its own standards, which may differ from what you had.⁹ One catch: if the move would raise costs and your original housing authority would be billed for the difference, it can deny the transfer when it doesn’t have the funding to cover it.

If You Are Denied

A denial has to come in writing, with the reasons and instructions for requesting an informal review.¹⁰ The review is your chance to present your side, either in writing or in person, and lay out any circumstances the housing authority may not have considered.

Whoever conducts the review cannot be the person who denied you or anyone reporting to that person. The housing authority then issues a final decision in writing with an explanation.¹⁰ Federal regulations don’t set a single deadline for requesting a review. That timeline is set locally in the housing authority’s administrative plan, so read your denial letter carefully for any stated deadline and act quickly.

The informal review process doesn’t cover every kind of decision. You generally cannot appeal your voucher bedroom size, a refusal to extend your search term, or a determination that a specific unit failed inspection. Those are treated as discretionary administrative decisions outside the formal appeal process.

1
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fact Sheet: Housing Provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
2
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Notice PIH 2025-07: Emergency Housing Vouchers Leasing (Revised)
3
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Notice PIH 2021-15 (HA) – Emergency Housing Vouchers Operating Requirements
4
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Housing Choice Voucher Tenants
5
HUD Exchange. EHV Roadmap: Emergency Housing Vouchers 101
6
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Emergency Housing Vouchers Frequently Asked Questions
7
HUD Exchange. EHV Roadmap: Administrative and Service Fees
8
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Notice PIH 2023-23: Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) Expanded Use of the EHV Services Fee
9
eCFR. 24 CFR 982.355 – Portability: Administration by Initial and Receiving PHA
10
eCFR. 24 CFR 982.554 – Informal Review for Applicant