Thinking of Becoming a Housing Choice Voucher Landlord?

Why Accept Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program Participants?

Renting to Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) participants has many benefits including:

• Reliable, guaranteed rent payments
• Stable participants
• A good partner in the City in addressing tenant issues

Program Improvements

The City of Tucson Housing and Community Development made program improvements for landlords a priority in 2020. Here is a list of what we’ve accomplished:

• Inspection turnaround time decreased from 13 days to 4 days
• The average first housing assistance payment decreased from 39 days to 15 days
• New Landlord Support Team to assist landlords with missing payments, deposits, lease issues, adding new landlords to the HCV program, and other questions

How the Program Works

• The Housing Choice Voucher Program is a relationship between the Public Housing Authority (PHA, the City of Tucson Housing and Community Development Department), the property landlord, and the participant (the tenant)
• It is a subsidy program where the landlord sets the rent amount and uses their own lease
• The PHA awards a voucher to the prospective participant. The participant finds a landlord that will accept the voucher and eventually enters into a lease with that landlord
• The participant’s portion of rent payment is based on their income
• The PHA pays the balance of the lease rent amount less the participant’s portion
• The owner and the PHA enter into a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contract that specifies owner and PHA obligations in regard to the specific lease

Landlord Requirements to Participate in the HCV Program

• Proof of ownership
• W-4
• Unit passes PHA inspections
• Rent lies within Payment Standards(PDF, 185KB)
• Cannot rent to blood relatives

Marketing Your Unit

Be sure to include in your marketing and advertising materials that you accept HCV (Section 8) voucher holders.

List your property on AffordableHousing.com.

To learn more, email Maria Sherfield at maria.sherfield@tucsonaz.gov and visit our Resources page.

For an overview of the program and how it works for Landlords, view the Housing Choice Voucher Program Landlord Briefing PowerPoint presentation(PPTX, 1MB).

Watch this video from a Tucson landlord who accepts HCV program participants.