Income-based housing benefit

An income-based housing benefit  is a government program which provides some type of financial or tax support for housing use to individuals who qualify on the basis of low income.  By contrast, other major housing programs in the United States provide benefits to homeowners, typically regardless of income (e.g. mortgage interest deduction), or help fund development of housing (e.g. Low Income Housing Tax Credit, or help fund housing-related service providers (e.g. homelessness programs). 

(note: this term was coined by YIMBYwiki, for apparent lack of a suitable existing one. 

 

but actually the category it defines is a big, big deal, as it describes the major new direction that many people believe US housing policy needs to shift, ). 

 

Housing Choice Voucher Program

In the United States, the largest income based housing benefit is the Housing Choice, one of the programs authorized under Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937, commonly known as Section 8. Managed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, it pays to landlords a large portion of the rents and utilities of about 2.1 million lower-income households which have been issued a voucher, on an ongoing basis as long as they remain eligible for the voucher. Housing Choice vouchers are "tenant-based," as opposed to "project-based," so a tenant with a voucher may apply the voucher benefit for any apartment meeting minimum standards whose landlord will accept the voucher. Housing Choice also allows individuals to apply their monthly voucher towards the purchase of a home.

Section 8 also authorizes a variety of "project-based" rental assistance programs, under which the owner reserves some or all of the units in a building for low-income tenants, in return for a federal government guarantee to make up the difference between the tenant's contribution and the rent in the owner's contract with the government. A tenant who leaves a subsidized project will lose access to the project-based subsidy.  (Wikipedia). 
 

FAIR (Federal Assistance In Rental) Credit 

(proposed