President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to "provide Section 8 housing vouchers to every eligible family."

But by the end of his term, millions of eligible households were still not receiving the assistance.

Section 8 is the federal government's main program to make rent affordable for low-income families. Under the program, the family pays its portion of the rent for a private apartment or house — amounting to 30% of its household income — and the government covers the rest with a voucher. The government sets the rent and works with property owners who agree to participate.

Housing vouchers help about 5 million people in about 2.3 million households cover rent and utility costs. Research has shown they are highly effective at reducing homelessness, overcrowding and housing instability.

In 2022, Biden asked Congress for an additional $1.5 billion for housing vouchers, enough to help an additional 200,000 households. Congress approved $200 million for 25,000 new vouchers. 

In 2023, Biden again requested an additional $1.5 billion for the vouchers and Congress approved $130 million, enough to fund 11,700 new vouchers. In 2024, Biden requested an additional $565 million, and Congress approved $45 million, enough for 3,000 new vouchers.

Sonya Acosta, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank, said the additional vouchers have helped families, but data shows that about three-quarters of renters with low incomes — approximately 18 million households — do not get the assistance they need. In 2021, the organization found that families typically wait years before receiving vouchers, mainly due to limited funding. 

"The unmet need for eligible households remains large," Acosta said. "The additional vouchers provided in the past few years are not sufficient to really advance President Biden's campaign goal, though they certainly have made an impact on people's lives and in our communities. But much more is needed to really address affordability issues for people with low incomes."

Biden promised to provide Section 8 vouchers to every eligible family, but his requests, and Congress' approvals, fell short of that. Millions still await the assistance. We rate this Promise Broken.

President Joe Biden proposed major expansions of housing vouchers for low-income families. So far, Congress hasn't come anywhere close to meeting that goal.

Biden campaigned on a promise to "provide Section 8 housing vouchers to every eligible family so that no one has to pay more than 30% of their income for rental housing."

Section 8 is the federal government's main program to make rent affordable for low-income families. Under the program, the family pays its portion of the rent for a private apartment or house — amounting to 30% of its household income — and the government covers the rest with a voucher. The government sets the rent and works with landlords who agree to participate.

​​In his fiscal year 2022 budget request, Biden asked Congress for an additional $5.4 billion for housing vouchers, enough to help an additional 200,000 households.

Instead, Congress approved $200 million for 25,000 new vouchers, said Jen Butler, a spokesperson for the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The 25,000 vouchers are a step in the right direction, but it's small compared with the overall need, said Will Fischer, senior director of housing and research at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. A Congressional Budget Office report in 2015 estimated that about 8 million additional households would be assisted if vouchers were made available to all who are eligible.

Biden made a similar multibillion-dollar request for vouchers for fiscal 2023, said Fischer. Although the House passed a bill in June with funding for 140,000 vouchers, the Senate hasn't acted on Housing and Urban Development appropriations for 2023. Senate Democrats introduced a bill with only enough to fund around 5,000 vouchers.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found in 2021 that families typically wait years before receiving vouchers. That delay was credited to limited funding. About 1 in 4 households that need rental assistance get it.

Some families wait up to eight years for a voucher, the center found. And 48 of the 50 largest housing agencies had average wait times of more than a year. Only two reported families had made it off their wait lists in less than that.

"On average nationally, families that received vouchers had spent close to two and a half years on waitlists first, exposing many to homelessness, overcrowding, eviction, and other hardship while they wait," the center wrote. 

There is still time in Biden's tenure for Congress to go along with his promise for a major expansion of Section 8 vouchers, but so far Congress has only taken a small step toward this goal. We rate this promise Stalled. 

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Joe Biden made a big promise on housing. On his campaign website, he said he would "provide Section 8 housing vouchers to every eligible family so that no one has to pay more than 30% of their income for rental housing."

Section 8 is the federal government's main program to make rent affordable for low-income families. Under the program, the family pays their portion of the rent for a private apartment or house — amounting to 30% of their household income — and the government covers the rest with a voucher. The government sets the rent and works with landlords who agree to participate.

Today, the program provides assistance to about 2.3 million households. But Biden's housing policy paper made it clear the country had a long way to go in getting help to everyone who qualifies. It said only a quarter of Section 8-eligible households were getting help.

In his 2022 budget request, Biden took the first step toward his goal. His budget asked Congress for an additional $5.4 billion for housing vouchers, enough to help an additional 200,000 households. 

Advocates such as the National Low Income Housing Coalition welcomed the move.

But even if Congress goes along, the gap between the number of families who qualify for help and those who would get it would remain wide.

The latest federal report on housing needs in America showed that as of 2017, about 7.5 million households qualified for help, but weren't getting it. (Families qualify if they make less than 50% of their area's median income.)

Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, said given the size of that gap, "200,000 vouchers is still only a down payment on the number of households in need of assistance."

While it seems unlikely that Biden will reach the goal he set in his campaign, for the moment, we rate this promise In the Works.