About Section 8 Compass

Section 8 Compass is an independent editorial guide to the federal rental assistance programs administered by HUD — the Housing Choice Voucher program (Section 8), public housing, project-based vouchers, and the smaller specialized voucher programs that often go undiscussed.

We are not affiliated with HUD or any government agency. We do not process applications, manage waitlists, or issue vouchers. What we do is collect public data about every Public Housing Agency in the country, organize it by state and county, and publish plain-English guides written for renters — not for landlords, policy researchers, or industry insiders.

Where our data comes from

Public Housing Agency contact information, voucher counts, and program designations are sourced from HUD’s public Public Housing Authorities open dataset, which is published as a feature service on HUD’s ArcGIS open data portal. We refresh this data periodically and document the source date in our update logs.

Income limit summaries are derived from HUD’s annual Fair Market Rent and Income Limits publications. Always confirm specific eligibility numbers with the PHA you are applying to — income limits update annually and vary by county.

Editorial standards

Every guide on this site is written by editors who have spent time inside HUD’s regulations and inside the day-to-day reality of applying for a voucher. We strive to be accurate, current, and unflinchingly practical — meaning we tell you when a process is going to be hard, not just what the brochure says. If you spot something inaccurate, please let us know.

How we’re funded

The site is supported through display advertising. Ads do not influence editorial content. We do not accept payment from PHAs or affordable housing developers in exchange for coverage.