Housing · guide
Section 8 rent: how much you pay with a voucher
Your share is not a percentage of the rent. It is a percentage of your income after deductions, and the voucher covers the gap up to a local ceiling.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
With a Housing Choice Voucher you pay the total tenant payment, which is the highest of three amounts: 30% of your monthly adjusted income, 10% of your monthly gross income, or the minimum rent your housing authority sets, up to $50. Adjusted income is gross yearly income minus $500 for each dependent and $550 for a family whose head or spouse is 62 or older or disabled, the 2026 amounts, which rise to $525 and $575 on January 1, 2027. Child care for children under 13 that lets someone work, look for work or study comes off too, and so do medical costs of an elderly or disabled family above 10% of income. A mother of two earning $24,000 a year who pays $3,000 of child care has $20,000 of adjusted income and a tenant payment of $500 a month. The housing authority pays the landlord the rest, up to its payment standard. If the unit costs more, you pay the difference, but at move-in your share cannot exceed 40% of adjusted monthly income.
Your monthly share with a Housing Choice Voucher
Total tenant payment, per month
$575
| Adjusted income per year | $23,000 |
| 30% of adjusted monthly income | $575 |
| 10% of gross monthly income | $200 |
| Rule that applies | 30% of adjusted income |
Total tenant payment: the 30% rule and its two floors
Every voucher calculation starts from one figure, the total tenant payment, defined in 24 CFR 5.628. It is the highest of these amounts, rounded to the nearest dollar:
- 30% of the family's monthly adjusted income;
- 10% of the family's monthly income before deductions;
- for a family on welfare whose payment includes a part the agency designates for housing, that designated part;
- the minimum rent, which the housing authority may set at up to $50 a month for vouchers and public housing.
For nearly every household the first line wins. The 10% line only takes over when deductions are very large compared with income: the adjusted income would have to fall below one third of gross income. In practice, when people say Section 8 tenants pay 30% of income, they mean 30% of adjusted income, which is lower than what they actually earn.
The total tenant payment is not necessarily what you hand the landlord. It covers your rent share and your utility bills together, and it can grow if you pick a unit that costs more than the local payment standard, as explained further down. It is also the starting point for public housing, where the same 5.628 rule applies.
Deductions that lower adjusted income in 2026 and 2027
Adjusted income is annual income minus the deductions of 24 CFR 5.611. Since the housing law known as HOTMA, HUD adjusts the two flat deductions for inflation every year, rounded down to a multiple of $25. The 2026 values come from HUD's table of inflation-adjusted values, effective January 1, 2026; the 2027 values apply from January 1, 2027.
| Deduction | 2026 | From January 1, 2027 | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Each dependent | $500 | $525 | members under 18, full-time students and people with a disability, other than the head or spouse (foster children excluded) |
| Elderly or disabled family | $550 | $575 | once per family, when the head, spouse or co-head is 62+ or disabled |
| Medical and attendant care | above 10% of income | above 10% of income | unreimbursed medical costs of elderly or disabled families; attendant care and equipment that let a member with a disability, or another member, work |
| Child care | actual cost | actual cost | reasonable, unreimbursed care of children under 13 so a member can look for work, work or study |
The flat deductions are small. $500 a year is worth about $13 a month off the tenant payment, so a third child lowers the rent by that amount, not by a third. Child care and medical costs move the result far more, because they are deducted in full, or in full above the threshold. Keep receipts, since the calculation rests on information the housing authority has verified. Attendant care and auxiliary apparatus costs are capped at what the family members who can work thanks to them earn.
The 2027 increase changes little for most families. The mother of two in the examples below goes from $500 to $499 a month when the dependent deduction moves to $525, , while the retiree stays at $322 because the extra $25 of deduction is worth less than a dollar a month once rounded.
Payment standard, utility allowance and the 40% cap
The voucher itself is a subsidy with a ceiling. Each housing authority sets a payment standard for each unit size, normally between 90% and 110% of HUD's fair market rent for the area under 24 CFR 982.503, and higher only through an exception. It also publishes a utility allowance schedule: the monthly cost it assumes for the utilities a tenant pays, by unit size and type of energy. The rent plus the utility allowance is the gross rent.
Under 24 CFR 982.505, the authority pays the landlord the lower of two amounts: the payment standard minus the total tenant payment, or the gross rent minus the total tenant payment. Take the mother of two, whose tenant payment is $500. In an apartment rented $1,750 with a utility allowance of $150, the gross rent is $1,900. With a payment standard of $1,800, the subsidy is $1,800 minus $500, or $1,300. Her share of the gross rent is therefore $600: $450 to the landlord and $150 kept for the bills. Above the payment standard, every extra dollar of rent is hers to pay.
That is where the 40% rule steps in. 24 CFR 982.508 says that when the authority approves a first lease and the gross rent exceeds the payment standard, the family share may not exceed 40% of adjusted monthly income. For this family, 40% of $1,667 is $667. Her $600 share passes. A unit at $1,850 would push it to $700, above the cap, and the authority could not approve that lease. The cap protects families from signing a lease they cannot carry. It applies only when the authority approves a new tenancy, so a share that later climbs above 40% because the rent went up is not blocked by it.
Five households, computed
The table applies the 2026 deductions to five situations. Incomes are yearly and gross; the tenant payments are monthly. The mini calculator at the top of the page does the same with your own figures.
| Household (2026) | Adjusted income | 30% of adjusted, monthly | 10% of gross, monthly | Tenant payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mother, 2 children, $24,000 wages, $3,000 child care | $20,000 | $500 | $200 | $500 |
| Retiree alone, $14,400 Social Security, $2,400 medical | $12,890 | $322 | $120 | $322 |
| Parent, 4 children, $12,000, $7,000 child care | $3,000 | $75 | $100 | $100 |
| Couple, 1 child, $42,000 | $41,500 | $1,038 | $350 | $1,038 |
| Parent, 1 child, no income, minimum rent of $50 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $50 |
The retiree's medical bills of $2,400 exceed 10% of her income by $960, and that amount comes off on top of the $550 family deduction. The parent of four with heavy child care is the rare case where the 10% line wins: deductions leave $3,000 of adjusted income, and 30% of it, $75 a month, is less than 10% of gross income, $100. The couple earning $42,000 pays $1,038; whether that couple qualifies at all depends on the very low income limit of its county, which you can check in Section 8 income limits.
Minimum rent, zero income and hardship
A family with no income has a tenant payment of zero under the 30% and 10% lines, so the minimum rent decides. 24 CFR 5.630 lets a housing authority set it at up to $50 for vouchers and public housing, and fixes it at $25 for the other Section 8 programs.
The same rule requires an exemption for financial hardship. It covers a family that lost eligibility for another assistance program or is waiting for a decision, a family that would be evicted because it cannot pay, a drop in income after a job loss or another change, a death in the family, and other situations the housing authority or HUD recognizes. When a voucher family asks, the authority must suspend the minimum rent from the following month until it decides whether the hardship is real and whether it is temporary or long term.
Income changes during the year matter in both directions, and each housing authority explains in its administrative plan when it recomputes the tenant payment and which changes you must report. Keep pay stubs, benefit letters and child care receipts together, since the figures come from verified documents. For other help with the same household budget, the SNAP calculator counts your rent in the shelter deduction, and the federal poverty level page shows where your income stands for health programs.