Assistance program
Mainstream Vouchers
$4.0 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, Housing and Urban Development, Department of
- Assistance
- Direct Payments for Specified Use
- CFDA number
- 14.879
- What it does
- The Mainstream Vouchers (previously referred to as the Mainstream 5-Year Program and/or the Section 811 Voucher Program) were originally authorized under the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-625). The Mainstream Vouchers provides tenant-based assistance to persons with disabilities. Until the passage of the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-374) (Melville Act), the program operated as a separate program distinct from the regular tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher Program. The Melville Act converted the Mainstream 5-Year Program to the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program under 8(o) of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937. Under the Melville Act, except for serving a specific population, Mainstream vouchers are to be treated the same as regular voucher assistance. In other words, the same regulations at 24 CFR Part 982 (Section 8 Tenant-Based Assistance: Housing Choice Voucher Program) apply to Mainstream vouchers. There is no authority to treat families that receive a Mainstream voucher differently from other applicants and participants of the HCV program. After enactment of the Melville Act (i.e., subsequent to conversion of this assistance to section 8(o) voucher assistance), funding for Mainstream voucher renewals and administrative fees was first provided in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-55) under its own paragraph under the Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) heading. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 provided funding for incremental Mainstream vouchers for the first time since the enactment of the Melville Act (in addition to renewal and administrative fee funding). These incremental vouchers exclusively assisted non-elderly persons with disabilities. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 ("2019 Act") also provided funding for incremental Mainstream vouchers for non-elderly persons with disabilities, in addition to renewal and administrative fee funding. In addition, the 2019 Act states that all new and existing Mainstream vouchers must be provided to non-elderly persons with disabilities upon turnover. Consistent with prior appropriations acts, all funding for 2017-2019 Mainstream vouchers was provided under its own paragraph (e.g., paragraph (4) under the TBRA heading in the 2019 Act). While the Melville Act requires Mainstream vouchers to be treated the same as regular voucher assistance, the separate HCV Mainstream appropriations results in an accounting of Mainstream activity separate from the HCV program.