Subsidized households (HUD)
Homes under contract for a federal housing subsidy, the people living in them, their incomes and their waiting times, by HUD program, as of December 31 each year, built from the tenant reports that landlords and housing agencies file with HUD.
Figures
Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Picture of Subsidized Households. Data period 2025. Published .
| Measure | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Subsidized housing units available2025 | 12,942 | 2025 |
| People living in subsidized housing2025 | 21,229 | 2025 |
| Average income of subsidized households2025 | $17,469 | 2025 |
| Average months on the waiting list2025 | 20 months | 2025 |
Pages built on this dataset
Publisher
- Organization
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Publisher’s dataset
- Picture of Subsidized Households
- File or API used
- https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/pictures/files/COUNTY_2025_2020census.xlsx
- Methodology
- https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/pictures/dictionary_2025.pdf
Coverage
- Geography
- Nation, all 50 states and DC, Idaho's counties
- Time coverage
- 2014-2025
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Published
- February 18, 2026
- Retrieved
- October 16, 2026
- License of the records
- Public domain. U.S. federal government work.
- Rows
- 14,263 observations, 2014-2025
Measures
| Measure | What it measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Subsidized housing units available | Homes under contract for a federal HUD housing subsidy and available for occupancy, summed across HUD's programs. | count |
| Subsidized housing units, by program | Homes under contract for a federal HUD housing subsidy and available for occupancy, by HUD program: public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Project Based Section 8, the Section 202 and 811 programs and others. | count |
| People living in subsidized housing | People in households receiving a federal HUD housing subsidy, summed across HUD's programs. | people |
| People in subsidized housing, by program | People in households receiving a federal HUD housing subsidy, by HUD program. | people |
| Average income of subsidized households | Average total household income per year of households receiving a federal HUD housing subsidy, across HUD's programs. | usd |
| Average months on the waiting list | Average number of months households that moved into HUD-subsidized housing during the year had spent on the waiting list, for the programs that report waiting list dates. | months |
Caveats
- Each figure is a December 31 snapshot. Household figures come from tenant reports with effective dates spanning about the prior 18 months, so some are older than the snapshot.
- The programs counted are public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers (including project-based vouchers), Moderate Rehabilitation, Project Based Section 8, Rent Supplement and Rental Assistance Payment contracts, Section 236 and Below Market Interest Rate homes, and the Section 202 and Section 811 programs for seniors and people with disabilities. Homes built only with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and USDA Rural Development housing, are not in this dataset.
- HUD hides small and poorly reported cells: a figure is left out when fewer than 11 households were reported, or when reports came in for fewer than half of occupied units. Small counties therefore show unit counts but often no people, income or waiting-time figures, and a county can drop out of a series for a year.
- Idaho's county figures add up to slightly less than the state figure, because HUD reports a few units it could not place in any county only in the state total.
- Units are homes under a federal subsidy contract and available for occupancy; people are everyone in those households, so one voucher can cover several people. A program with a unit count of zero but residents (for example the newest Section 811 program) shows people and no unit count.
- HUD adds or retires program categories over time. Rent Supplement and Rental Assistance Payment contracts have almost ended, and Section 811 Project Rental Assistance appears only from 2025.
- Waiting time is the average months between joining a waiting list and moving in. It excludes programs that do not report list dates, so most multifamily programs have no figure and the all-programs average leans toward vouchers and public housing.
- Average household income is the average yearly income across subsidized households, reported to HUD at admission or annual recertification, not an income distribution.
- The national figure includes Puerto Rico, Guam and the other territories.
How to cite
Understand Idaho, “Picture of Subsidized Households”, compiled from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Picture of Subsidized Households. Retrieved October 16, 2026. https://understandidaho.com/data/hud-picture-subsidized/.
Cite U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development directly for the figures themselves.
This page was last updated .