Finding Low Income Apartments Anywhere in the U.S.

While HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) doesn't do direct grants and loans, preferring to work through state and local governments and nonprofits, they do have a good place to look for low-income and subsidized apartments throughout the 50 states.  It's their page for low-rent apartments.  Many people want to find subsidized housing ahead of moving there, and this is a good place to start.  You input your state, and in the next step you have to specify your town, zip code, or county.  You are also allowed to specify your type of apartment (disabled, elderly, or all types), and how many bedrooms you want.  As in dating or other choice-driven endeavors, you are better off if you are less picky.  You will then get a list of rentals that fit your criteria, and contact information.

In the state of Ohio, a wonderful website exists separate from this that goes into more detail.  The Ohio Rental Housing Locator allows you to search for a range of rents, limit your search to places with current vacancies, disability support features, and bedrooms.  It also has a link to the Coalition of Homelessness and Housing in Ohio with a search box for fining immediate homelessness assistance.  There's a good link on Ohio landlord-tenant law and a link to a county-by-county directory of sources to help get home repair assistance.    It's a worthwhile place to explore.

Where Do You Find First Time Home Buyer Programs?

There are lots of programs to help people buy a home, especially if you are what is called a “first time homebuyer.” I say that in quotes, because it doesn’t mean what you think it does. For the purposes of federally funding, a “first time homebuyer” is in fact somebody that hasn’t owned their primary residence in the last three years. That’s right. If you owned a home say, 10 years ago, but sold it and have been renting since? You’re a “first time homebuyer” right now. So where do you find lower mortgage rates and down payment assistance?

Here's a handy website: Down Payment Resource.  Just put in a city or address, and answer a few questions, and you can come up with a list of possible funds.


Another  place to look is your state’s housing authority. Each housing authority might have a different program from each other, but many have the same features: lower mortgage rates and/or a second mortgage to cover down payment assistance (that may be forgiven if you live in the house for a certain amount of time). See your own state for details. Also, check your city’s housing department. Check the community action agency (a nonprofit agency created to help low-income people) in your area. They may have home ownership programs, too. Check to see if the area in which you want to buy a home has a community development corporation(a nonprofit dedicated to developing a particular area or neighborhood) that covers it—they might have a home buying assistance program, too. If you are a low-income person living in a rural area, see the USDA’s home buying programs. You may qualify for one of them.

If you are a cop, fireman, educator, or EMS tech, you may also qualify for the HUD Good Neighbors Next Door program, created to help move such professionals into economically depressed areas. And if you are currently receiving a Section 8 rental voucher, you may qualify to have your housing subsidy cover part of the cost of purchasing a home—IF you live in a housing authority that is running a home ownership program.

Programs for veterans on a federal level are covered at the Veteran's Administration, but state housing authorities may have special state programs, such as the Heroes Program in Ohio.

Most of these programs have income limitations and house price limitations that can vary from state to state, but if you are buying in a depressed area, the limits might be looser. You will probably also need to go through a financial counseling program, but if you’re willing, and really want to buy a home, you should check it out.

Finding Help Paying the Rent

Finding financial help with rental housing, in terms of Section 8 (subsidized) housing is fairly easy. You can go to the HUD website for just such a purpose, and find a state-by-state listing of section 8, which narrows down to the town or zip code, and type of housing you want to rent. Listings of public housing agencies are available also.


The tricky part is finding financial help for the rental housing that you occupy right now, so that you can stay there. How do you do that? There is a page called rentassistance, which lists local nonprofits and governmental agencies that help with housing. But some of them help with owner-occupied housing, or housing for particular population groups (such as AIDS patients) and many may simply not have enough money to help renters, so do not be surprised if the organization’s resources don’t match their goals—very few do nowadays. Also, some of the organizations listed are housing agencies that fund other nonprofits, but may not work directly with people in danger of losing their rentals. You might call those local agencies to see which agencies they fund. Here are some other strategies to consider:

1) Try the 211 center where you live if you have it. This directory can search by your zip code to see if you have this service. If so, operators should be able to tell you if rent assistance is available from an agency where you live.

2) Try a nearby faith based organization. To find one in your area, try one of the faith-based social service agencies nearby, like Catholic, Lutheran, or Jewish social services, or the Salvation Army.

3) If you are a veteran, contact your county or state veteran’s affairs. Counties may have emergency money for individual veterans.