Number of vouchers per thousand lower in Nevada

Preview of 2022 Affordable Housing Dashboard

In 2021, the number of Housing Choice Vouchers in use per thousand population was higher in the U.S. overall (6.8) than in Nevada (4.8), as measured in this year's Affordable Housing Dashboard. This is one of the factors in Nevada’s low ranking in serving extremely low income households in need of affordable housing. For Nevada to match the national rate, an additional 6,400 vouchers would be required in Nevada.

Using numbers from the Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2022 report, The Gap, if all those additional vouchers were available to Nevadans and used to help extremely low income (ELI) renter households, Nevada’s affordable and available rental homes per 100 ELI households would increase from 18 per 100 to 24 per 100, a substantial improvement. However, Nevada would still rank well below the national average of 36 on this measure.

Housing Choice Vouchers per 1,000 population is one of the ten indicators used on Nevada's Affordable Housing Dashboard. The new 2022 dashboard will be available soon on the Low Income Housing Database webpages.

The housing choice voucher (HCV) program is a federal program for helping low income renters. Vouchers are sometimes referred to as “tenant-based” assistance because the vouchers are typically not tied to a given housing development. Rather, the household with the voucher can find their own housing, including a single-family home, townhouse, or apartment, if the housing meets all the requirements of the HCV program, and the landlord accepts the voucher. Housing choice vouchers in Nevada are administered by local public housing agencies. In Nevada there are three Public Housing Authorities administering the HCV program: Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority (SNRHA), Reno Housing Authority (RHA), and Nevada Rural Housing Authority (NRHA). The sliding scale nature of the voucher allows it to assist even households with zero income or extremely low-income individuals such as those on Social Security Disability Insurance. Unlike Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, vouchers are not considered an entitlement. Most who would qualify cannot obtain a voucher because of lack of availability.

Most HCV administered by the SNRHA are used in Clark County, most HCV administered by the RHA are used in Washoe County and most HCV administered by NRHA are used in the balance of the state. If all vouchers lie in those respective regions, the rate of HCV in use per thousand was 5.0 in Clark County, 4.8 in Washoe County and 3.3 in the balance of the state. 

Voucher data from the Picture of Subsidized Housing website and Census Bureau population estimates were used to find rates of voucher use per thousand. For more detail see the 2022 Affordable Housing Dashboard, coming soon.