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Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD)

Resources / November 24, 2025

 

For nearly a century, public housing has provided security and stability for nearly 1 million people. Public housing is permanently affordable and publicly owned. It’s a lifeline for poor and working people, but decades of racial discrimination stigmatized the program so that it’s been chronically underfunded. As a result, properties have fallen into serious disrepair, hundreds of thousands of critical units have already been taken out of the program, and the federal government continues to get rid of or demolish more than 10,000 units each year. The cost to repair our country’s public housing was estimated at $26 billion in 2010 and increased to $169 billion in 2025.

That’s why in 2011, in response to the serious repair needs at public housing properties, Congress enacted the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) to preserve and improve public housing buildings and other properties. The RAD program enables Public Housing Authorities and owners to change the type of housing assistance provided at certain properties by converting these properties to the project-based voucher (PBV) or project-based rental assistance (PBRA) programs. 

When done effectively, RAD can save tenant homes, enforce tenant protections, and help finance critical repairs for owners of public housing and four “legacy” programs under the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): 

  • Rental Supplement (Rent Supp);
  • Rental Assistance Payment (RAP);
  • Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation (Mod Rehab); and
  • Section 202 properties with Project Rental Assistance Contracts (PRACs).

To maintain and improve existing properties, owners have the option to enter into long-term project-based Section 8 contracts, which allow for more funding flexibility, including the use of other funding sources like Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

The RAD program has two components, both with built-in significant tenants’ rights: 

  • Under RAD Component 1, public housing units may convert to PBVs or PBRA. As of 2025, the number of Component 1 conversions is capped at 455,000 public housing units nationwide, with the converting units chosen by HUD through a competitive selection process.
  • Under RAD Component 2, Mod Rehab, Rent Supp, RAP, and Section 202 PRAC units may convert to PBVs or PBRA. For the Component 2 conversions, there is no cap and thus no competitive selection process.

The RAD program is a useful tool to preserve tenant homes for the long-term and incorporates many strong tenant protections to do so. However, we are concerned about the local implementation of these rights and HUD’s ability to oversee RAD conversions nationwide. These concerns are discussed in NHLP’s 2017 letter to HUD, a 2018 General Accountability Office Report, and this 2018 Shelterforce article.

RAD conversions result in many changes for residents, including new legally enforceable documents (lease, house rules, grievance procedures) and new everyday logistics (possibly a new owner or manager, rent payment procedures, building repairs, or temporary relocation). Ensuring adequate implementation of tenants’ rights requires significant local tenant involvement, national coordination among tenant advocates, and ongoing discussions with HUD about ways to improve the RAD program.  

For more information about RAD tenants’ rights, see: 

For more information about RAD, please contact Korey Lundin at klundin@nhlp.org. 

Authorizing RAD

HUD’s RAD Statute, Notices, Regulations & Tools website contains links to RAD legislation, guidance, and policy information. HUD’s RAD Knowledge Base website contains additional forms, data, trainings, and other tools. 

Congress enacted RAD as part of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012. Authorization for RAD lies solely in federal appropriations bills and has no other statutory basis. While there are no separate RAD regulations, the federal regulations governing the PBV or PBRA programs apply after the RAD conversion, as they do in non-RAD properties. After the RAD program was authorized, HUD issued Notice PIH-2019-23, which governs HUD’s implementation of RAD. The RAD Notice was updated in 2025 and provides the implementation details and requirements for both Component 1 and Component 2 conversions, including significant resident protections.  

There is a separate RAD fair housing and relocation notice, HUD Notice 2016-17, which discusses resident relocation requirements when planning for and implementing temporary relocation caused by RAD Component 1 conversions, and provides guidance to housing authorities, owners, and developers regarding key fair housing and civil rights statutory and regulatory requirements before, during, and after a RAD conversion. 

Is RAD happening in my community?

HUD’s website only lists properties which are in the process of a RAD conversion, or which have already been converted. The RAD Resource Desk contains data which can be used to identify Component 1 conversions, including: 

  • The state
  • Public Housing Authority name and size
  • Property name
  • Public and Indian Housing Information Center (PIC) development number
  • Type of conversion (PBV or PBRA)
  • Number of units converting
  • Status of RAD conversion
  • The date when HUD initially approved the PHA’s RAD application and issued a Commitment to Enter into a Housing Assistance Payments Contract data (CHAP)
  • Whether there is a transfer of assistance proposed (where tenants will be permanently relocated to one or more federally assisted properties)
  • Whether there is new construction proposed
  • Whether the property will use Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for repairs
  • The anticipated or actual closing date (date of the official RAD conversion) and
  • Other information about every RAD conversion nationwide.

While live Component 2 data is not available, HUD does have a list of converted Component 2 properties.