By: Tushar Gurjal, Senior Policy Manager

August 12, 2026 — Earlier today (though the notice is dated August 10), HUD published a notice titled “Revision to Emergency Housing Voucher and Stability Voucher Program Requirements Related to Payment Standards” (Notice PIH 2026-20). The notice modifies Notice PIH 2021-15 titled “Emergency Housing Vouchers – Operating Requirements” and Notice PIH 2022-24 titled “Stability Voucher Program.” This notice removes the paragraph discussing setting payment standards beyond the basic range (i.e., the notice removes the paragraph allowing a PHA to set a payment standard from 90% to 120% [as opposed to the normal 110%] of the published Fair Market Rent [FMR]). The Department determined that “. . . this waiver and alternative requirement is no longer necessary and may be causing undue financial strain on public housing agency (PHA) HCV budgets.”

Housing agencies must follow the regulations at 24 CFR 982.503(c) on the payment standard basic range and 24 CFR 982.503(d) for instances where an exception payment standard may be set to an amount higher than 110% of the FMR.

Housing agencies must be in compliance with this change within 60 days of the issued date of this notice. This requirement is for both new Stability Voucher (SV) admissions (there are no new Emergency Housing Voucher [EHV] admissions) and current EHV and SV families moving to a new unit. For current EHV and SV families, decreased payment standards may not be used to recalculate the family’s HAP any earlier than two years following the effective date of the decreased payment standard (See 24 CFR 982.505(c)(3)). Any exception payment standards housing agencies have adopted for their Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program  with existing regulatory authorities are not impacted by this waiver rescission.

The full notice can be found here.

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