USDA Rental Assistance Project - Based (RA) subsidized apartments

These properties are privately owned rental housing financed through the USDA Rural Housing Service Rental Assistance program. If the Department of Agriculture provides subsidies directly to the property through a Rental Assistance contract, the property owner applies those subsidies to the rents he/she charges income eligible households. Unlike the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, Rental Assistance (RA) subsidy is not portable or transferrable. It stays with the property.

With USDA Rental Assistance subsidy, your rent will be approximately 30 % of your adjusted monthly income as long as you qualify. Often however, Rental Assistance (RA) is not available for every unit at the property. If an applicant is not qualified for Rental Assistance or Rental Assistance is not available at move-in, your rent will be 30% of your income, however the lowest you will pay is the property's Base rent and the highest you will pay is the property's Note rate rent. If you move-in without RA subsidy, but income-qualify for it, you may be placed on a waiting list for RA subsidy at that property depending upon need. Applicants for these properties need to qualify between the USDA Very Low (50%) and the USDA Moderate (80%) adjusted income limits. In general, USDA properties can accept applicants at a higher income level than most HUD programs allow, and give a preference to lower income applicants.

Please call the MAIN CONTACT on each property listing for specific program or property eligibility.

Properties that accept Tenant-Based Housing Authority Provided Vouchers

Properties in this category are private or publically owned properties that accept applicants with a Housing Authority provided Housing Choice Section 8 voucher or certificate. You must first have applied and received a voucher through your local housing authority program. You should contact your city or county Housing Authority directly for an application for their voucher/subsidy program.

All properties listed on our site that do not have Project-Based subsidy through another government program will take a Section 8 voucher. Vouchers are portable and transferrable because they stay with the household, not the property, once you move out of the property. Then you can take your voucher to a property that accepts them and receive a subsidized rent.

With a voucher or certificate, you will generally only pay 30% of your monthly household income for rent. Maximum rent amounts that the owner can charge are designated by the Federal Government and income limits apply. If an owner wishes to charge more than the maximum rent authorized by the housing authority, the tenant may be asked to pay all or part of the difference.

Please call the MAIN CONTACT on each property listing for specific program or property eligibility.

Properties that offer Washington State Housing Tax Credit Affordable apartments (non-subsidized)

These properties have entered into a long term contract with the Washington State Housing Finance Commission to keep rents affordable to low income households for at least 21 years. In exchange for their commitment, owners of Tax Credit properties (LIHTC) are able to reduce their IRS tax assessment as long as qualified families are placed in their apartments and remain income qualified.

These properties do not have Project-Based subsidy, so unless there is another subsidy program "layered" into a Tax Credit property, or you have a Housing Authority Section 8 Voucher, your rent will not be subsidized. The rent you will qualify for at these properties are restricted by HUD rent limits and will depend upon your annual income level. These are called income set-asides. The property may have rent ranges, lowest to highest, but a family in a higher income level may not qualify for the lowest rent level. There may also be some other set asides at the property, called occupancy set asides, such as for large families, disabled households or farm labor households. Properties with these types of set asides would give preference for rents and units to households that qualify.

Waiting lists can also vary greatly at these properties. There are often much longer wait times for the lower rent amounts and may be no wait at all for the higher rent amounts at the property. In addition, often your annual income level may determine which unit you will qualify for. This can also effect the time you may need to wait for a unit to become available.

For example,
Let's say a property has a Tax Credit income set aside of 30% units at a rent of $350 per month. That rent is only available if your gross annual income is less than, for example, $15,000 per year. If all of the 30% units are currently occupied, your household could not immediately move-in to a 30% unit. You may have to either wait for a 30% unit to become available, or, if you can afford a higher rent, you can move-in more quickly.

Tax Credit properties usually have more than one income set aside, so units are generally offered at varying rents between 30%-80% area median income. They will also generally have a minimum monthly income requirement, such as 2x the amount of the rent.

Please call the MAIN CONTACT on each property listing for specific program or property eligibility.

A comprehensive re-usable tenant screening report (portable report) means a tenant screening report, prepared by a consumer reporting agency at the direction of and paid for by the prospective tenant, and made available directly to a prospective landlord at no charge. Reports are re-usable for 30 days for multiple landlords.

In accordance with Senate Bill 6413 effective 6/9/2016, landlords have the option to either accept or not accept portable reports, and the landlords decision must be included in the landlord’s posted rental criteria.

If the landlord indicates its willingness to accept a comprehensive reusable tenant (portable) screening report, the landlord may access the landlord's own tenant screening report, regarding a prospective tenant, as long as the prospective tenant is not charged for the landlord's own tenant screening report.