The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program is a key piece of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s affordable housing preservation strategy.

One component of the program allows public housing authorities to convert properties to long-term Sec. 8 rental assistance contracts. The competitive program is capped at 60,000 units. HUD leaders and supporters are hoping to lift that limit as demand has been roughly triple the level of the cap.

Top 10 public housing authority RAD applicants:

  1. Chicago  (10,935 units)
  2. El Paso, Tex.  (6,100 units)
  3. Nashville, Tenn.  (5,384 units)
  4. Birmingham, Ala.  (5,015 units)
  5. Baltimore  (4,583 units)
  6. San Francisco  (4,575 units)
  7. Charlotte, N.C.  (3,424 units)
  8. Mobile, Ala.  (3,410 units)
  9. Tampa, Fla.  (3,065 units)
  10. Greensboro, N.C.  (2,195 units)

Source: Department of Housing and Urban Development, June 2014

A list of the RAD first component reservations can be found at www.hud.gov/rad.