Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is the largest low-income housing assistance program in the US. The HCV program is administered by several thousnd Public Housing Authorities throughout the US. The HCV program's capacity is constrained by federal contract limits--HCV is not an entitlement program. As such, entry into the program is controlled and PHAs had the difficult task of selecting a subset of eligible households to receive program benefits. Most PHAs control program access by holding a waitlist lottery. These lotteries accept applications from interested households and once the application period is closed, a subset of applicant households are placed on the PHA's HCV waitlist. PHAs approach the timing, frequency, visibility, and methods of waitlist lottery application processes in many different ways. This variation results in different demands on and opportunities for households eligible for HCV. This study aims to describe the broad trends of these processes using a unique dataset of three years of waitlist openings throughout the country. Findings associate waitlist opening trends with PHA- and community-level characteristics. This study contributes to exsisting research by investigating an important part of the HCV program that is rarely studied.