Portability

The beauty of the housing choice voucher program is that participants are welcome to live anywhere in the nation with their voucher, through a process called portability.  In general, HUD regulations place few restrictions on where participants may live or move with their voucher.

Within the limitations of the regulations a participant family or an applicant family that has been issued a voucher has the right to use tenant-based voucher assistance to lease a unit anywhere in the United States providing that the unit is located within the jurisdiction of a PHA administering a tenant-based voucher program. The process by which a family obtains a voucher from one PHA and uses it to lease a unit in the jurisdiction of another PHA is known as portability. The first PHA is called the initial PHA. The second is called the receiving PHA.

The receiving PHA has the option of (1) administering the family’s voucher for the initial PHA or (2) absorbing the family into its own program. Under the first option, the receiving PHA bills the initial PHA for the family’s housing assistance payments and the fees for administering the family’s voucher. Under the second option, the receiving PHA pays for the family’s assistance out of its own program funds, and the initial PHA has no further relationship with the family.

If you are a tenant under our program interested in porting out of our jurisdiction, please complete this form.

Families wishing to move into our jurisdiction may contact our portability department.