Voucher Portability:

                          Live Where You Want

The HCV Program is about Choice, and one of the choices voucher holders may make is to move, whether for personal, employment, family or financial reasons. When this happens, a family’s Voucher can move with them from one Public Housing Authority (PHA) to another in a process known as Portability, also known as "Porting" the Voucher.

The Portability process begins with your current HCV/Section-8 caseworker, wherever you currently live.

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'Portability' Between NCCHA, Newark and Wilmington

Local Housing Authorities Ease Portability Between Jurisdictions

Through Memoranda of Understanding signed with Wilmington Housing Authority and Newark Housing Authority, it will now be easier for NCCHA Housing Choice Voucher clients to seek housing in these cities - and for their clients to seek housing throughout New Castle County. 

In other words, NCCHA voucher holders may now search for and move into qualified homes in Newark and Wilmington, while remaining our clients, and vice versa. NCCHA Clients who want to seek rental units in Wilmington or Newark now can while remaining NCCHA clients, and should work with their current caseworkers to do so. Meanwhile, WHA or Newark Clients can now look for housing throughout the county, and should work with their own current caseworkers to do so.

HCV Clients moving between any set of jurisdictions except NCCHA and WHA or Newark Housing Authority must still follow the normal Portability processes outlined below. 

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Current NCCHA Clients Porting Elsewhere

If you are a current client of New Castle County Housing Authority and would like to move elsewhere with your voucher, please contact your Housing Assistant. You will need to complete a Request for Portability, which can be emailed to your HA or completed in our office.

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Porting to NCCHA from Another PHA

Changing PHA’s takes about 45-60 days, so clients should ensure they will have stable living arrangements during the process. Please note that some things are different between PHAs, often including payment standards and the calculation of bedroom sizes. NCCHA’s current payment standards for both rent and utilities are listed on our homepage. 

Regarding Voucher size (number of bedrooms), the standards are based on the assumption that each bedroom will accommodate no more than two (2) persons. The family size does not dictate the size of unit the family must actually lease, nor does it determine who within a household will share a bedroom/sleeping room.

In determining bedroom size, NCCHA will include the presence of children to be born to a pregnant woman, children who are in the process of being adopted, children whose custody is being obtained, children currently under a 50% or more joint custody decree, as well as children who are temporarily away at school or temporarily in foster care. A Live-in Aide and the Live-in Aide’s family are not family members. A Live-in Aide will generally be provided a separate bedroom. No additional bedrooms are provided for a Live-in aide’s family on the voucher. 

Bedroom size will also be determined using the following guidelines, with the expectation of two same-sex family members per room:

Please Note that the payment standards and voucher sizes listed are general guidelines. No specific household’s HAP standard or Voucher size is guaranteed until it is determined by the PHA on a case-by-case basis and reported to the family in writing, generally during the intake briefing.

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If you are porting to our jurisdiction, have your current housing authority send your paperwork to the NCCHA Housing Assistant whose caseload corresponds to your last name. 

Or email: [email protected].

Page Updated 2/16/2023