HUD HCV Guidebook § 1

In the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, moves with continued assistance may occur both inside and
outside of a PHA’s jurisdiction. An eligible family that has been issued a voucher can lease a unit that meets
program requirements anywhere in the United States, provided that a PHA administering a tenant-based
program has jurisdiction in the area in which the unit is located. This feature of the program is referred to as
portability, which is the process of leasing a dwelling unit with tenant-based housing voucher assistance
outside of the jurisdiction of the PHA that initially issues the family its voucher (the initial PHA).
This chapter describes how eligible families may move from one jurisdiction to another using portability. The
PHA that initially issues the voucher to a portable family in order to allow them to move to a different
jurisdiction is referred to as the initial PHA. The PHA in the jurisdiction to which the family wishes to move is
known as the receiving PHA.

Moves and Portability                                                                                                                                     3

How portability differs in the two main types of assistance under the Section 8 Program

                Tenant-Based Vouchers                                Project-Based Vouchers

    Under TBVs, the subsidy is tied to the family,    With PBVs, however, the subsidy is tied to the unit,
    not the unit. This means that the assistance      not the family. Only after one year of assistance in a
    may be used within the jurisdiction where the     project-based unit, the family may switch to the
    family lives or within any jurisdiction with an   tenant-based voucher program and exercise
    HCV program.                                      portability if they choose, with some restrictions.

This chapter also describes the responsibilities of initial and receiving PHAs including processing portability
moves for families and billing and paperwork submission requirements. Program regulations concerning
portability are found at 24 CFR 982.353 through 982.355.
Program regulations were revised through the publication of “Housing Choice Voucher Program: Streamlining
the Portability Process” (also referred to as the portability rule, 80 FR 50564, published in the Federal
Register on August 20, 2015). The latest HUD guidance on the portability process can be found in PIH Notice
2016-09.