How to Transfer a Section 8 Voucher to Another County

To transfer a Section 8 voucher to another county, tell your current Public Housing Agency in writing that you want to move and where, let them forward your file to a PHA in the destination county, and then work with that receiving PHA to get a new voucher and find a unit under their local rules. It is a federal right called portability, and the receiving PHA generally cannot refuse to take you.¹² Expect the process to take several weeks to a few months, and expect your share of the rent to change once you’re in the new area.

When You’re Allowed to Port

Two timing rules decide whether you can move now or have to wait.

Your current PHA may prohibit moves during your initial lease term, which must be at least one year.³ If you’re still inside that term, ask whether the PHA will make an exception, but they don’t have to.

The second rule catches people who applied for assistance from outside the PHA’s area. If you were a “nonresident applicant” when you first applied, you have no right to portability during your first 12 months in the program.¹ A nonresident applicant is someone whose legal residence was outside the PHA’s jurisdiction on the date they applied. If you already lived in the PHA’s area when you applied, this 12-month restriction doesn’t apply to you.⁴

The Steps to Move Your Voucher

Notify Your Current PHA in Writing

Tell your PHA in writing that you want to relocate and where you plan to go.³ Name the county or city and give a rough timeline. Your PHA will hand you forms asking for updated income, any changes in household members, and details about your current housing. Fill them out carefully. Incomplete paperwork is the most common reason transfers stall.

Your File Gets Forwarded

Once the transfer is approved, your PHA sends your family’s records to a PHA in the receiving area. The packet includes HUD Form 52665, your most recent Family Report, and the supporting verifications.² The regulation says the initial PHA must do this “promptly,” but speeds vary. Following up with both offices helps.

Contact the Receiving PHA Yourself

You are required to contact the receiving PHA promptly to learn their intake procedures for incoming portable families.³ Don’t wait for them to reach out. They’ll schedule a briefing where you learn local rules, hand over any additional documents, and receive your new voucher. The receiving PHA does not put you on a waiting list and does not redetermine your eligibility; they take you as an incoming portable family.²

Find a Unit and Submit the Tenancy Request

With the new voucher in hand, start looking for a rental in the new county. When you find one, the landlord fills out HUD Form 52517, the Request for Tenancy Approval, listing the unit, the proposed rent, and a date it can be inspected.⁵ You submit that form to the receiving PHA, which sets off the rent reasonableness review and the inspection.

Inspection, Lease, and Contract

The receiving PHA inspects the unit against federal housing quality standards.⁶ If it passes, you sign a lease with the landlord and the PHA signs a housing assistance payments contract with the owner. If the unit fails and the problems aren’t life-threatening, the landlord typically has 30 days to fix them before a re-inspection. Life-threatening issues must be corrected within 24 hours. If the repairs don’t happen, you’ll need a different unit.

What Can Block Your Transfer

Portability is a right, but not an unconditional one. Your PHA can refuse to process the move on the same grounds it can deny or terminate assistance generally.⁷ The common reasons:

You or your household owe money to any PHA, such as unpaid rent or amounts a PHA covered on your behalf under a previous contract.
A household member was evicted from federally assisted housing within the last five years.
Someone in the household committed fraud connected to a federal housing program, or engaged in criminal or drug-related activity that the PHA determines warrants denial.
You moved out of your current assisted unit in violation of the lease, unless you were fleeing domestic violence.

If you think a denial is wrong, ask for an informal hearing before the PHA finalizes it.

How Your Rent Might Change

Moving almost always changes what you pay out of pocket. The receiving PHA’s payment standard and utility allowance schedule replace whatever your original PHA used, and the numbers can be quite different.²

The math is straightforward. The payment standard is the maximum subsidy the PHA will apply toward rent for your family size. If the actual rent is at or below the payment standard, you generally pay about 30 percent of your adjusted monthly income. If the rent is above the standard, you pay the excess on top of your 30 percent share.³ Moving from a low-cost area to a high-cost one doesn’t automatically mean paying more, since payment standards rise with local rents, but any unit priced above the local standard increases your share. Look up the receiving PHA’s payment standards before you commit.

The receiving PHA also sets your voucher bedroom size using its own occupancy standards, which can differ from your current PHA’s. A different bedroom size means a different payment standard amount and again shifts your share.²

How Long You Have to Find a Unit

The receiving PHA issues a voucher with a search term of at least 60 calendar days.⁸ Many PHAs give 90 or 120, and most allow extensions if you can show active searching. Ask about the extension policy at your briefing.

One useful protection: once you submit a Request for Tenancy Approval, the clock stops. Your search time is suspended from the date you turn in the request until the PHA notifies you in writing whether the unit is approved or denied.³ Find a unit on day 55, submit the paperwork, and the clock won’t run out while the inspection is pending.

If your voucher expires before you lease up, the receiving PHA notifies your original PHA. You may be able to return to your original PHA’s jurisdiction if your assistance there is still active. Otherwise, you would need to reapply, which usually means going back on a waiting list.³

Finding a Landlord Who Will Take the Voucher

The hardest part of any port is often finding a willing landlord. Federal law does not require private landlords to accept vouchers, so expect some rejections. Properties financed with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits are the exception: they must accept vouchers as a payment source.⁹ HUD’s online resource locator can help you find those properties in your target area.

Roughly a third of states have source-of-income protection laws that make it illegal to reject a tenant solely for paying with a voucher. If your destination is in one of those states, a landlord who refuses on that basis alone could be violating state law. The receiving PHA can usually tell you whether local or state protections apply.

Costs You’ll Cover Yourself

The voucher covers a share of the rent, not the cost of moving. HUD’s guidebook specifically lists security deposits and moving costs as expenses the family must plan for when porting.¹⁰ Deposit limits vary by state, from one month’s rent to no cap at all. Application fees at rental properties add up too. Budget for these before you start searching, because program funds cannot pay any part of your share.

Emergency Moves and Disability Accommodations

Two situations override the normal timing rules.

Fleeing Domestic Violence

Under the Violence Against Women Act, a family fleeing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking can move even when doing so would otherwise violate the lease, and the emergency request does not affect the victim’s standing in the program.¹ To qualify, you must reasonably believe there is a threat of imminent harm from further violence if you stay, or the sexual assault occurred on the premises within the preceding 90 days. Tell your PHA you are requesting an emergency transfer under VAWA; they are required to have an emergency transfer plan.

Disability-Related Moves

If a household member’s disability is the reason for the move, you can request a reasonable accommodation that bypasses timing restrictions, including one-move-per-year policies and initial-lease-term rules. The PHA must grant the request unless it creates an undue financial or administrative burden, and there must be a connection between the disability and the need to relocate.¹⁰ The receiving PHA must also accommodate disability-related needs during intake; making a family wait weeks for the next scheduled briefing, for example, would not be reasonable.