Study details bleak outlook for housing voucher recipients under Trump budget proposal

By Michael Lyle

Nevada Current

For housing voucher recipients in Nevada, the average cost of rent is far higher than their monthly income, meaning cuts to the voucher program would almost certainly result in them losing their housing, according to a new analysis.

The average monthly income for Nevadans participating in the Housing Choice Voucher program, commonly known as Section 8, is $1,442 while the average rent is $1,742, according to a report released Thursday by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley.

The report comes amid uncertainty about the future of federal housing assistance funding. President Donald Trump’s 2026 fiscal budget proposed steep cuts across various agencies, including slashing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development budget by more than 40 percent.

Those who successfully qualify for housing vouchers pay about 30 percent of their income toward rent, and the voucher covers the remaining proportion of the rent, including utilities.

Nevada was among the top five states where rents are drastically outpacing monthly income for voucher recipients. California, Florida, Arizona and Colorado were the other states in the top five.

“If a voucher were to disappear out from under them there is really no way to feasibly continue living in that apartment for the average household,” said Ryan Finnigan, deputy director of research at the Terner Center.

Even if federal funding is not cut, there could still be problems, Finnigan said.

“Without an increase in the budget, the program’s resources are going to fall behind and there may be a situation where folks might lose assistance because the rents are outpacing the growth of the program’s budget,” he said. “There is a need to proactively push for the expansion of the program if we want to keep the same number of people supported as there are today.”

An estimated 2.4 million households nationwide rely on housing vouchers, including 17,137 households with vouchers throughout Nevada, according to the report.

The analysis also found that a quarter of those households in Nevada earn an income from wages, a quarter include people with disabilities, 39 percent of the households have children, and 34 percent are headed by a person 62 years or older.

Thousands more are estimated to be on the waiting list for a voucher in Nevada, similar to long waits across the country.

“The average household nationwide waits almost 2.5 years between applying for a voucher and leasing a home with one; and in many places, the average wait exceeds five or more years,” the report says.

In most of the country, without a voucher, people would not be able to afford the places they live.

Nationwide, the average housing recipients’ total monthly rent, including utilities, is “over 100 percent of their monthly household income,” the report found, and “the average rent-to-income ratio for voucher holders was 1.1.”.

The report also broke down voucher recipients in nine Nevada counties and found Clark and Nye counties have the highest rent-to-income discrepancies

Voucher recipients in Clark earn about $1,465 a month while their rents are on average $1,875 a month. Nye voucher holders on average earn $1,164 a month and pay $1,445 on rent each month.

Washoe and Humboldt are the only two counties where rent for housing voucher holders is lower than their monthly income.

The average monthly income in Washoe is $1,404 while rent is $1,215 on average. In Humboldt average rent is $1,538 and monthly income is $1,613.

The ratio for the two counties is similar to Wyoming, the state with the lowest rent-to-income ratio among voucher holders: average monthly income for a recipient is $1,438 while the average rent is $1,026.

While lower than most states, having 71 percent of monthly income go toward the total cost of rent, which would happen without a voucher, isn’t sustainable, Finnigan said.

“What we’re seeing even in the states where we think of as somewhat affordable like Wyoming where the gap is the smallest, without the voucher the average incomes for the households that have a voucher just would not be able to afford (rent),” he said.

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Michael Lyle (MJ to some) is an award-winning journalist with Nevada Current. In addition to covering state and local policy and politics, Michael reports extensively on homelessness and housing policy. He graduated from UNLV with B.A. in Journalism and Media Studies and later earned an M.S. in Communications at Syracuse University.