On July 23, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a Request for Information (RFI) on a “direct rental assistance” model of housing assistance with the goal of seeking input to inform policy development. The RFI does not currently provide direct rental assistance or provide funding to do so.

Currently, rental housing subsidies through the Housing Choice Voucher program are provided to landlords on behalf of an eligible renter households. The direct rental assistance model would provide rental subsidy directly to the renter instead of to the landlord. HUD is seeking input on the RFI by August 30, 2024.

The effort is informed by pandemic-era federal government programs that made payments directly to households, for example through the economic impact payments, the expanded child tax credit, and emergency rental assistance. In a message published by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research in September of 2023, the agency is exploring lessons learned from direct pandemic assistance to simplify administration of rental assistance vouchers.

According to HUD’s 2023 message, landlord acceptance of the housing voucher is a critical barrier: approximately 40 percent of households offered a voucher are unable to find an eligible unit with a participating landlord. The Philadelphia Housing Authority is currently testing a model of direct rental assistance, where households on a waitlist received a prepaid debit card for housing expenses rather than a housing voucher. The goal is to remove the barrier of landlord participation in accepting a voucher.

However, HUD presently lacks the authority to use existing resources for direct payments; HUD had called on philanthropic entities to fund a pilot program to further test positive outcomes of direct rental assistance.