HUD PIH FY2025 · FMR FY2026 · ACS 2019–2023
Section 8 / Housing Choice Voucher statistics
The national picture of the U.S. Housing Choice Voucher program, agencies, capacity, payment standards, and how the 2-bedroom standard lines up against local market rent. Every figure is derived live from official HUD and Census open data.
- 3,780
- Public Housing Authorities
- 2.8M
- authorized HCV units
- 4,764
- 2-BR payment standards
- 393
- metros with a rent-margin read
The national picture
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). HUD's 2-bedroom payment standard meets or exceeds the median 2-bedroom gross rent in 95% of the 393 metros we track, a typical cushion of 21%.
- Texas
- #1 of 51 by PHA headcount (379)
- California
- #1 of 51 by authorized HCV (369,815)
- 95%
- metros where the 2-BR standard ≥ median rent
- 21%
- typical cushion over median 2-BR rent
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.
Key findings
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01 · 3,780 agencies administer roughly 2.8 million HCV units
The Housing Choice Voucher program reaches tenants through 3,780 Public Housing Authorities spread across 55 states and territories. Together they authorize about 2,812,771 Section 8 units in HUD's FY2025 administrative records. The rent comparison uses HUD FY2026 FMR and ACS 2019–2023 data.
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02 · Texas leads PHA count; California leads authorized HCV
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). New York City Housing Authority (NY) is the single largest authority at 122,210 authorized units. 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.
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03 · The 2-BR payment standard meets or exceeds the median 2-BR rent in 95% of metros we track
Across 393 metropolitan areas, HUD's 2-bedroom payment standard covers the Census ACS median 2-bedroom gross rent in 95% of them, with a typical cushion of 21% over the median. Median gross rent reflects rents paid by all current tenants; asking rents for newly available units typically run higher, so a positive cushion does not guarantee a unit is findable.
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04 · The margin is tightest around Jacksonville, FL Metro Area
Where the payment standard runs closest to (or below) the local median rent, voucher holders face the hardest search. The tightest read in our data is Jacksonville, FL Metro Area, where the 2-BR standard sits about 22% below the metro's median 2-BR gross rent.
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05 · 4,764 payment standards and 85,154 HCV tracts are mapped
Payment standards vary by bedroom size and FMR area, not by a single national figure. PlainVoucher reconciles 4,764 HUD 2-BR payment standards and locates voucher use across 85,154 census tracts so a renter can check the number that actually applies to their address.
Download the data
Open CSV of the 393 metro voucher-vs-market pairs behind the findings above (2-BR payment standard, ACS median gross rent, shortfall percentage points).
Download hud-hcv-metro-gaps.csv
Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development & Research (Public Housing Authority directory, Fair Market Rents & payment standards). Figures reflect the current PlainVoucher dataset. HUD FMR FY2026 / PIH FY2025 · 2026
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year estimates, median 2-bedroom gross rent by metropolitan/micropolitan statistical area. ACS 5-Year (B25031) · 2023
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