The department of housing and urban development (HUD), office of multifamily housing, section 811 project rental assistance (PRA) program, authorized by the frank melville supportive housing…

The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency a $487,728 cooperative agreement on December 1, 2025, under the Section 811 Project Rental Assistance Program (CFDA 14.326) to administer project-based rental assistance for extremely low-income persons with disabilities.

PHFA will manage rental assistance payments to eligible multifamily properties serving approximately 34,000 extremely low-income households annually with disabilities across Pennsylvania. The agency may directly administer rental assistance contracts for eligible properties or engage third-party administrators to do so. Property owners accept tenant applications for rental assistance under this program, which provides states with flexibility to address affordable and integrated housing shortages for persons with disabilities.

The cooperative agreement runs from December 1, 2025, through November 30, 2045, with place of performance in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The agreement structure provides initial funding for the first five years, with subsequent funding renewal subject to Congressional appropriations. This award reflects HUD's Section 811 PRA program objective to expand supportive housing supply by leveraging mainstream affordable housing, Medicaid, and community-based supportive service resources through collaborations between state housing and health and human service/Medicaid agencies.

Activities

Approximately 31,000 households have received assistance annually through rental assistance payments. This program provides states with the flexibility to award and administer these funds to address the shortage of affordable and integrated housing for persons with disabilities. Housing agencies may either directly administer the rental assistance contracts for eligible properties or contract with other qualified parties to administer them. The owners accept a family's application for rental assistance, confirms the family's eligibility for assistance and selects the family for admission in accordance with the occupancy handbook 4350.3 REV-1 (https://WWW.HUD.GOV/program_offices/administration/hudclips/handbooks/hsgh/4350.3). The family then moves into the property and executes the lease and agrees to section 8 program requirements including annual recertification. The owner submits for payment of the rental assistance subsidy monthly on behalf of the participating family. The family pays 30% of their adjusted income in rent and utilities and the rental assistance contract (RAC) pays the balance of the contract rent to the owner.

Expected outcomes

Approximately 34,000 extremely-low-income persons with disabilities continue to live as independently as possible in the community by subsidizing rental housing opportunities which provide access to appropriate supportive services, and the owner remains in compliance with cooperative agreement and rental assistance contract. The desired outcomes of the program include: • facilitating and sustaining effective and successful partnerships between state housing or other appropriate housing agencies and state health and human service/medicaid agencies to provide permanent housing with the availability of supportive services for extremely low-income persons with disabilities; • integrating affordable housing with access to appropriate services for persons with disabilities; • substantially increasing integrated affordable rental housing units for persons with disabilities within existing, new, or rehabilitated multifamily properties with a mix of incomes and disability status, in well-resourced neighborhoods of opportunity.

Intended beneficiaries

State housing government and other appropriate housing agencies currently allocating low income housing tax credits (lihtc) under section 42 of the internal revenue service code of 1986 (IRC), any applicable participating jurisdiction allocating and overseeing assistance under the home investment partnerships act (home), and/or a housing agency who operates a similar federal or state program to lihtc or home are intended beneficiaries of the program. To be eligible, the applicant must have an inter-agency partnership agreement with the state agency responsible for health and human services programs, and the state agency designated to administer or supervise the administration of the state's plan for medical assistance under title XIX of the social security act (42 U.S.C. 1396, ET SEQ.), i.e. medicaid. Tenants that have extremely low-income (at or below 30 percent of area median income (AMI)) and at least one adult member (18-62 years of age) of the household has a disability. The person with the disability must be eligible for: community-based, long-term services as provided under the state's plan for medical assistance under title XIX of the social security act (medicaid), state funded services, or other appropriate services defined in the written partnership agreement. To ensure community integration of PRA units, no more than 25 percent of the total units in eligible multifamily properties can: 1) be provided section 811 PRA funds; 2) be used for supportive housing for persons with disabilities; or 3) have any occupancy preference for persons with disabilities.

Subrecipient activities

The recipient does not intend to subaward funds.