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
371
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.

New York City Housing Authority runs the most. Among the 3,780 U.S. Public Housing Authorities in HUD's FY2025 directory, a handful of big-city agencies administer the bulk of the 2.8 million authorized Housing Choice Vouchers, while Texas has the most separate PHAs. The rankings below, by authority size, state density, and voucher-vs-market rent margin, are computed live from official HUD and U.S. Census ACS open data.

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, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles each administer more vouchers than many entire states. 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

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, running multi-year waitlists, and publishing its own administrative plans.

# Public Housing Authority StateSection 8 units
1 New York City Housing Authority NY122,210
2 Chicago Housing Authority IL54,082
3 Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles CA53,428
4 NYS Housing Trust Fund Corporation NY52,084
5 NYC Dept of Housing Preservation and Dev NY42,258
6 Michigan State Housing Development Authority MI32,308
7 Los Angeles County Development Authority CA27,058
8 STATE OF NJ DEPT. OF COMM. AFFAIRS NJ25,164
9 Philadelphia Housing Authority PA25,063
10 Exec. Office Housing & Livable Communities MA23,073
11 Housing Authority of the City of ATLANTA Georgia GA22,186
12 MIAMI DADE HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEV FL21,682
13 Housing Authority Of Baltimore City MD21,280
14 Housing Authority of the City of Dallas, Texa TX20,345
15 Houston Housing Authority TX19,308
16 Housing Authority of New Orleans LA18,318
17 Georgia Residential Finance GA18,175
18 Boston Housing Authority MA17,755
19 D.C Housing Authority DC16,525
20 San Diego Housing Commission CA16,368

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 often predicts how many waitlist options a household has.

# State PHAsTotal Section 8 units
1 Texas 379183,544
2 Georgia 17871,997
3 New York 159297,342
4 Louisiana 15359,931
5 Alabama 14241,554
6 Minnesota 13539,402
7 Massachusetts 130102,391
8 Arkansas 12728,724
9 Michigan 12667,559
10 Missouri 12348,947
11 North Carolina 12373,360
12 Kentucky 11940,589
13 Wisconsin 11534,981
14 Illinois 106112,085
15 Nebraska 10514,642

Explore PHA inventories in the largest voucher-administering states:

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