	Introduction

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program provides monthly rental assistance to around 2 million low-income households each year. It is administered at the local level by quasi-governmental public housing agencies (PHAs). While some form of Section 8 rental assistance has been in place since the mid-1970s, the modern program was shaped largely by the 1998 assisted housing reform act ( P.L. 105-276 ). More than a decade later, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program has come under new scrutiny, with PHA industry leaders, low-income housing advocates, both the Bush and Obama Administrations, and some Members of Congress calling for reforms. This report introduces the primary features of the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, issues that have arisen, and recent reform proposals. The current system for calculating income, as noted earlier in relation to rents, has been criticized as cumbersome and prone to errors. This raised concerns for both the George W. Bush Administration and Congress about the cost of the program. Recent Reform Proposals

		Moving to Work Expansion

In recent years there have been calls to expand the Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration. Some have made minor changes to their existing Section 8 voucher and public housing programs, such as limiting reporting requirements; others have implemented full funding fungibility between their public housing and voucher programs and significantly altered their eligibility and rent policies. The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act, ordered reported by the House Financial Services Committee in the 111 th Congress and introduced in the 112 th Congress, included a provision that would have replaced the existing Moving to Work program with a new Housing Innovation Program (HIP). Similar, bipartisan reform legislation was proposed in the 110 th Congress. The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007 ( H.R. 1851 , 110 th Congress) passed the House and the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2008 ( S. 2684 , 110 th ) was introduced in the Senate. No reform legislation has been introduced in the 113 th Congress. 112th Congress

				SEVRA

A version of SEVRA very similar to the one approved by the House Financial Services Committee in the 111 th Congress was introduced by Representative Waters in the 112 th Congress. It would have modified the inspection process to permit PHAs to inspect units every other year, rather than every year. SEVRA was not considered before the end of the 112 th Congress. The two draft versions of SESA both included many provisions from SEVRA, but also made changes; most notably, neither version of SESA included an expansion of MTW. It contained many provisions from SEVRA and SESA, but with several changes, including a new name, which reflected the fact that all of these bills included provisions beyond the Section 8 voucher program: the Affordable Housing and Self Sufficiency Improvement Act of 2012 (AHSSIA). Similar provisions were included in Section 8 voucher reform legislation considered in the 111 th Congress and included in SEVRA, SESA and, most recently, AHSSIA.
The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program provides monthly rental assistance to around 2 million low-income households each year and is the largest (both in terms of people served and annual cost). It is administered at the local level by nearly 2,500 quasi-governmental public housing agencies (PHAs). While some form of Section 8 rental assistance has been in place since the mid-1970s, the modern program was shaped largely by the 1998 public housing reform act (P.L. 105-276). More than a decade later, the Section 8 voucher program has come under new scrutiny, with PHA industry leaders, low-income housing advocates, and some Members of Congress calling for reforms. This report introduces the primary features of the Section 8 voucher program, issues that have arisen, and recent reform proposals.
Many of the key features of the program have been considered for reform, including its administration; eligible uses of program funds; the method by which tenant income is determined and rents are calculated; who is eligible and what conditions are placed on receipt of assistance; and other features of the program such as portability and quality inspections. Some reform proposals have focused on changing aspects of the program seen as administratively cumbersome and prone to errors. Other proposals have focused on altering the incentives in the program in order to promote policy goals such as homeownership, mobility and family self-sufficiency.
Issues have also arisen regarding how the Section 8 voucher program is funded, how changes in formula allocations have affected PHAs, and the cost of the program. Partly in response to funding issues, and partly in response to programmatic issues, there have been calls for deregulation of PHAs through expansion of the Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration.
Section 8 voucher reform legislation has been considered in every Congress since at least the 108th Congress. One version of this reform legislation, called the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA), was introduced and considered in both the 110th and 111th Congresses (H.R. 1851 and S. 2684, 110th Congress; H.R. 3045, 111th Congress). These bills—which were largely similar, but with some changes—would have made modifications to several features of the Section 8 voucher program, including how income is calculated, how inspections are conducted, and how portability is treated, and they would have adopted a new funding formula. They also would have renamed, expanded, and modified the MTW Demonstration and permitted PHAs to implement alternate rent structures, within limits. A version of SEVRA that is very similar to H.R. 3045 was introduced in the 112th Congress (H.R. 1209) by Representative Waters. However, instead of taking up SEVRA, the House Financial Services Committee held hearings on new draft Section 8 voucher reform legislation, initially called the Section 8 Savings Act (SESA) and then titled the Affordable Housing and Self Sufficiency Improvement Act (AHSSIA). This draft legislation contained many of the same or similar provisions that have been included in SEVRA, including an expansion of a modified version of MTW. The draft AHSSIA was marked-up in subcommittee, but was not considered in full committee. Reform legislation has not been introduced in the 113th Congress.