The state of New Jersey has received 646 new Housing Choice Vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), totaling nearly $2.1 million.

The HUD announcement was made during the 2022 Governor’s Conference on Housing and Economic Development where HUD Region II Administrator Alicka Ampry-Samuel served as a keynote speaker and highlighted that New Jersey is being awarded 646 additional Housing Choice Vouchers for New Jersey residents, totaling $8.3 million, to be administered by the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA)  and local public housing authorities.

DCA’s Housing Choice Voucher Section 8 Program makes rents affordable for tenants in the private market. Tenants pay a portion of their income toward the rent, while the program pays the remainder. This flexibility has helped keep rent affordable for many people so they can remain in their homes.

HUD funds more than 3,300 housing authorities nationally.

Of those, DCA’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program is the 13^th largest in the nation.

DCA’s Housing Choice Voucher Program serves 24,078 families with an annual budget of $264 million.

Aside from the new housing vouchers, HUD also announced that on October 1, 2022, the FY2023 Fair Market Rents (FMRs) were increased, raising Housing Choice Voucher values in New Jersey by 13%, which expands housing options for voucher holders.

Nationally, FMRs will increase by an average of approximately 10 percent, enabling more households with housing vouchers to access affordable, stable housing.

In addition to HUD increasing the FMRs, the DCA has chosen as a policy decision to set its payment standards at 110% of those increased FMRs, the highest that can be done without special permission from HUD, to help voucher holders access more apartments in this market.

For example, the chart below shows the increased payment standards for 2-bedroom units for each county.