Housing Choice Vouchers – Oak Park Housing Authority

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (commonly known as the Section 8 Program) is a federally funded rent assistance program that provides help to low-income individuals and families, enabling them to rent privately owned properties throughout the Village of Oak Park.

Income eligible families are selected from our waiting list and issued Housing Choice Vouchers, which allow the families to search for and find suitable units (apartments, condos, single family, etc.) in the Village of Oak Park.

The family typically pays 30 percent of their monthly income towards rent and utilities and the OPHA pays the remaining portion directly to the property owner.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program maintains a Waiting List for participation in the program. Currently The Housing Choice Voucher Program Waiting list is closed and we are not accepting pre-applications for placement on the list. We anticipate that we will re-open the Waiting List for submission of pre-applications sometime in 2026. Please check back from time to time for Waiting List updates. For information about our current Waiting List, please scroll down.

How the Housing Voucher Program Works

The property owner, the HCV family and the OPHA have a triune relationship which gives a low-income family the opportunity to rent a unit that would typically be unaffordable to the family due to income constraints.

The OPHA and the HCV family enter into an agreement and a Housing Choice Voucher is issued to the family which allows the family to search for a suitable unit.

The HCV family finds a unit, and enters into a lease agreement with the property owner. HCV participants are under the same lease obligations as non-assisted families.

The property owner and the OPHA enter into a Housing Assistance Payments Contract providing an OPHA rent subsidy for the HCV family.

Who is Eligible?

Low-income families with a gross family income of below 50 percent of the area median income are eligible to participate in the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Number in Household

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
$38,650	$44,150	$49,650	$55,150	$59,600	$64,000	$68,400	$72,800

1	$38,650
2	$44,150
3	$49,650
4	$55,150
5	$59,600
6	$64,000
7	$68,400
8	$72,800

THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM’S MARCH 2024 WAITING LIST

The HCVP Waiting list is currently closed and we are not accepting pre-applications for placement on the list. 150 eligible households were selected at random from all pre-applications received during the most recent waiting list open period (March 4, 2024 through March 15, 2024) Households NOT SELECTED for the Waiting List were sent emails notifying them that they were NOT SELECTED on August 9 , 2024. These notifications were sent to the email address provide in the applicant’s pre-application. The 150 households that were SELECTED and placed on the HCVP’s 2024 Waiting list were sent email and US mail notifications on August 13, 2024.

We anticipate that we will re-open the Waiting List for submission of pre-applications sometime in 2026. Please check back from time to time for Waiting List updates.

UPDATING YOUR WAITING LIST INFORMATION

If you were SELECTED for the current 2024 Waiting List, please regularly update your household information using the applicant portal. To do so CLICK HERE.

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