What Section 8 actually costs you
A voucher covers a portion of your rent — typically the difference between roughly 30% of your adjusted income and the unit's rent (up to your PHA's payment standard). It does not cover everything else that comes with having a place to live, and that's where a lot of households get caught off guard.
What's still on you
- Your share of the rent — generally around 30% of adjusted monthly income, paid directly to the landlord.
- Utilities — unless they're included in rent, and even then you may owe an adjustment if your PHA's utility allowance doesn't fully cover actual usage.
- Security deposit — vouchers don't typically cover this; some PHAs or local nonprofits offer deposit assistance, but you usually have to ask.
- Everything else — groceries, transportation, insurance, medical costs, childcare, and so on, out of whatever income remains after your rent share.
Run your own numbers
The Rent Affordability Calculator includes a "Beyond-Rent Budget Snapshot" that shows roughly how much should be left for groceries, transportation, insurance, and savings after your rent share — so you can tell, before you sign anything, whether a unit is realistic for your whole budget, not just the rent line. The Security Deposit & Utility Estimator helps with the move-in costs specifically.
Deep dives
- The costs of moving in that your voucher doesn't cover
Your voucher helps with rent once you're settled. But getting into a new unit costs real money upfront — money the program doesn't pay. Here's what to plan for.
- Security deposits and utility allowances: what your voucher doesn't cover at move-in
Why your Housing Choice Voucher doesn't pay your security deposit, how utility allowances actually affect your monthly rent share, and how to budget for the costs that show up before your first month's rent.
- The 30% rule: how your Section 8 rent share is actually calculated
HUD's Total Tenant Payment formula explained — what counts as 'adjusted income,' how the 30% rule works, and why your rent share is a different number from the unit's listed rent.