National rankings · FY2025

Section 8, ranked by the numbers

Ranked views of HUD's Housing Choice Voucher ecosystem, which authorities run the most vouchers, which states have the most PHAs, and where market rent most outpaces HUD's Fair Market Rent.

3,780
PHAs ranked
NYCHA
Largest authority
51
States & DC
393
Metro gap analyses

Rankings of PHAs by unit count, states by PHA density, and metros by voucher-vs-market gap, computed from HUD PIH Open Data. According to HUD, more than 3,000 PHAs administer the Housing Choice Voucher program nationwide.

Rankings verdict

New York City Housing Authority leads the 3,780 PHAs by authorized Housing Choice Vouchers. Texas is #1 of 51 states and DC by PHA headcount (379 authorities) at authorized-HCV rank 3 (183,544 units) ≠ California #1 by authorized HCV (369,815 units) at PHA-count rank 20 (96 authorities). San Diego Housing Commission is the #20 cutoff to make this list at 16,368 authorized vouchers.

379
Texas PHAs (#1 headcount)
369,815
California HCV (#1 units)
#3
Texas HCV rank
#20
cutoff · 16,368 vouchers

Ranks use the 51-row states table (50 states + DC), the same corpus as methodology § corpus placement. Territories coded RQ, GQ, VQ, and TQ sit outside that table. Tie-break: state slug A–Z. Figures are the national size ordering, not local availability.

These boards draw on two federal sources: HUD's PIH Public Housing Authority directory (FY2025) for the authority- and state-level rankings above, and the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for the metro payment-standard-vs-market-rent comparisons further down. Every ranking here is computed live from the current source tables, not a cached snapshot, so the figures always reflect the latest published HUD and Census data. The authority and state boards share the same authorized Section 8 / HCV unit-count basis for direct comparability; the metro gap board further down uses a separate rent-margin methodology and should not be read against the unit-count rankings above.

The 12 largest voucher programs

Public Housing Authorities ranked by authorized Housing Choice Vouchers

vouchers

What this shows Big-city authorities dominate the top of the table. The long tail of 3,780 PHAs is overwhelmingly small, county- and town-level offices.

Source HUD PIH Public Housing Authority directory (FY2025) As of 2025

The bar to make the top 20

Where the #20 cutoff, San Diego Housing Commission, sits among all 2,129 PHAs with a reported unit count. The top 12 chart above shows only the biggest handful.

Authorized Section 8 units, every reporting PHA

This list's #20 cutoff vs. the full PHA population

16,368 Top 1% higher than 99% of 2,129 reporting PHAs

7–12,227: 2,095 reporting PHAs (98%). Below this entry. 12,227–24,448: 25 reporting PHAs (1%). This entry sits in this band. 24,448–36,668: 4 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. 36,668–48,888: 1 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. 48,888–61,109: 3 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. 61,109–73,329: 0 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. 73,329–85,549: 0 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. 85,549–97,769: 0 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. 97,769–109,990: 0 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. 109,990–122,210: 1 reporting PHAs (0%). Above this entry. #20 cutoff 7 122,210 every PHA with a reported unit count, bucketed by value

Each bar is a 12,220-wide band; taller bars hold more reporting PHAs. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source HUD PIH Public Housing Authority directory (FY2025) · 2025

Largest PHAs by Section 8 unit count

These PHAs administer the most vouchers by authorized Section 8 unit count. In cities like New York and Los Angeles, the local PHA is a genuinely huge operation, administering tens of thousands of vouchers and publishing its own administrative plans. The HUD directory does not report live waitlist status or application availability.

#Public Housing AuthorityStateSection 8 units
1New York City Housing AuthorityNY122,210
2Chicago Housing AuthorityIL54,082
3Housing Authority of the City of Los AngelesCA53,428
4NYS Housing Trust Fund CorporationNY52,084
5NYC Dept of Housing Preservation and DevNY42,258
6Michigan State Housing Development AuthorityMI32,308
7Los Angeles County Development AuthorityCA27,058
8State of Nj Dept. of Comm. AffairsNJ25,164
9Philadelphia Housing AuthorityPA25,063
10Exec. Office Housing & Livable CommunitiesMA23,073
11Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta GeorgiaGA22,186
12Miami Dade Housing and Community DevFL21,682
13Housing Authority Of Baltimore CityMD21,280
14Housing Authority of the City of Dallas, TexaTX20,345
15Houston Housing AuthorityTX19,308
16Housing Authority of New OrleansLA18,318
17Georgia Residential FinanceGA18,175
18Boston Housing AuthorityMA17,755
19D.C Housing AuthorityDC16,525
20San Diego Housing CommissionCA16,368

States by number of PHAs

Some states are administered by dozens of city and county PHAs; others are dominated by a single state-level housing authority. This ranking describes the structure of HUD directory records; it does not establish which agencies serve a household or whether a program is currently accepting applications.

#StatePHAsTotal Section 8 units
1Texas379183,544
2Georgia17871,997
3New York159297,342
4Louisiana15359,931
5Alabama14241,554
6Minnesota13539,402
7Massachusetts130102,391
8Arkansas12728,724
9Michigan12667,559
10Missouri12348,947
11North Carolina12373,360
12Kentucky11940,589
13Wisconsin11534,981
14Illinois106112,085
15Nebraska10514,642

More agencies does not mean more vouchers

Each dot is one state, plotted by its number of PHAs against its total authorized Section 8 units. The crosshair splits at the median across all 51 states (54 PHAs, 34,981 units), not the simple min/max midpoint. Nebraska is the sharpest outlier: #15 nationally by PHA count but only #39 by total units.

Every state's PHA count vs. total authorized Section 8 units, 51 states and DC. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 51 entities by Number of PHAs (X) and Total Section 8 units (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. Many agencies, high volumeFew agencies, high volumeMany agencies, lower volumeFew agencies, lower volume 0100200300400 0100,000200,000300,000400,000 Number of PHAs Total Section 8 units States by PHA count vs. total authorized Section 8 units Alabama - 142, 41554Alaska - 2, 4997Arizona - 23, 26753Arkansas - 127, 28724California - 96, 369815Colorado - 59, 38585Connecticut - 50, 46981Delaware - 6, 6098District of Columbia - 2, 16823Florida - 97, 131552Georgia - 178, 71997Hawaii - 6, 14587Idaho - 10, 8077Illinois - 106, 112085Indiana - 54, 46237Iowa - 63, 24437Kansas - 102, 14928Kentucky - 119, 40589Louisiana - 153, 59931Maine - 24, 15810Maryland - 30, 59815Massachusetts - 130, 102391Michigan - 126, 67559Minnesota - 135, 39402Mississippi - 52, 28730Missouri - 123, 48947Montana - 12, 7729Nebraska - 105, 14642Nevada - 3, 17752New Hampshire - 20, 12119New Jersey - 99, 90352New Mexico - 26, 15993New York - 159, 297342North Carolina - 123, 73360North Dakota - 26, 10312Ohio - 75, 107047Oklahoma - 104, 29418Oregon - 22, 43276Pennsylvania - 85, 102787Rhode Island - 28, 11590South Carolina - 42, 30771South Dakota - 35, 7404Tennessee - 85, 42979Texas - 379, 183544Utah - 19, 14194Vermont - 9, 9457Virginia - 41, 61522Washington - 33, 68087West Virginia - 32, 16463Wisconsin - 115, 34981Wyoming - 8, 2769
Every state's PHA count vs. total authorized Section 8 units, 51 states and DC.

Explore PHA inventories in the largest voucher-administering states:

Source: HUD PIH Open Data (FY25) Rankings based on self-reported HUD data

What to do with these rankings

These boards sort 3,780 HUD PIH directory records by authorized HCV units and state PHA counts - two different denominators.

  • Open a large PHA profile from the unit board and confirm the source-backed authorization count. New York City Housing Authority
  • Read a high PHA-count state directory to see why agency headcount is not the same as authorized HCV volume. Texas
  • Cross-check metros on the voucher-vs-market gap board when the question is rent coverage, not agency size. Gap board

Rankings are directory sorts of HUD-reported fields. They are not waitlist odds, eligibility results, or recommendations to apply anywhere.

Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source and method. PlainVoucher compiles public HUD and U.S. Census release data into a searchable reference. Release periods and source boundaries are identified on each data surface; PlainVoucher does not determine eligibility, waitlist status, payment standards, or local PHA rules. Read our editorial standards and corrections policy, methodology, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-02.