Search Housing Grants by typing your county

Over 2,000 programs and adding every day.

Many Section 8 applicants are eager to get housing vouchers in their hands since they can make rent a lot more affordable. How? Because if you have a Section 8 voucher, you’ll only have to put 30 percent of your income towards the rent, as the government will cover the rest. This is a great way to fix your finances and start saving for other expenses, but unfortunately, getting a voucher isn’t that simple.

While Section 8 eligibility isn’t too complicated, provided you make less than a certain income, vouchers can be hard to come by. The supply does not match the demand, making some Section 8 applicants wait up to 10 years to receive affordable housing.

Luckily, applying for a Section 8 voucher isn’t the only way to get housing that fits your limited budget, as you can do the following as an alternative.

Contacting Affordable Housing Buildings Directly

There are plenty of buildings with affordable housing units from coast to coast. Some of them require Section 8 vouchers, while others do not. Your goal here is to find the latter because unless you have a voucher right now, you don’t want to wait years before you can move in.

How can you find buildings with affordable units? You can start by searching for affordable housing in your city via Google. Next, use this HUD map to see Section 8 buildings near you, as some of them may not require vouchers. Lastly, you can contact PHAs in your city, county, or state and ask their counselors if they have a list of affordable housing buildings that you can get in touch with.

As you go through each method, make a list of contacts for each building. Look for the property managers’ email addresses, as that’s where you’ll be sending this following email.

Affordable Housing Email Template

Dear (insert property manager’s name here),

I’d like to express my gratitude for all of the work you do to put low-income people like myself into affordable housing. I am currently seeking a unit in line with my limited income, and I would love if you could answer these quick questions when you have time:

1. Are you accepting new applicants to your waitlist?
2. Do you have an estimate of how long your waitlist is?
3. Do you have units that charge 30 percent of income? (use this line if you don’t have a Section 8 housing voucher)
4. Do you accept Section 8 housing vouchers? (use this line if you do have a voucher)

I anxiously await your response and look forward to speaking to you soon.

Thank you,
(Your name)

The goal of this email is to find buildings that can accommodate you without a voucher. How is this possible? Because some buildings have funding of their own to help low-income applicants, which bypasses the need for a Section 8 voucher.

You can look for a 20-50 percent response rate. Resend the email to those who don’t respond while reminding them that this is your second or third request in the subject line and message. You can also keep calling the buildings until someone answers. As long as you’re persistent, you should see success.