National Housing Law Project Housing Law Bulletin

HUD now makes available at its Website the most recent data on Section 8 projects compiled from its various information systems.

The new data covers all properties with project-based Section 8 assistance, except possibly Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation projects, regardless of the type of underlying financing. There are approximately 70 data fields per property. The projects can be sorted by characteristics or geographic location. You will need an Internet Service Provider and a database program if you don’t already have them.

The address for this file is:

Once you get to this menu, there is an explanation of the file and you are given two choices: one to browse and one to download. The browse function allows you to search for data by state, city, or zipcode. The download function allows you to download the entire file. Note that this is an extremely large file and browsing and/or downloading takes a long time. The download function allows you to download three different formats, each file ranging from two to six megabytes (compressed format). The expanded format is close to 20 MB. This file must then be imported into a database (e.g., Access, DBase and Paradox) capable of handling large files (approximately 70 fields/10,000 records). Once the file is in a database, the records may can be sorted and printed as desired.

  This data will be extremely useful to advocates seeking to educate tenants, communities, and federal, state and local policymakers about Section 8 budget and policy issues.