About Housing Ledger
Housing Ledger is an independent, free directory of every U.S. Public Housing Authority — built so that anyone searching for affordable housing can find their local agency and its contact info without a paywall, an account, or an inbox full of marketing email.
Why This Site Exists
Affordable housing is one of the most opaque corners of American social policy. The federal government funds it, but it’s administered by roughly 3,300 local Public Housing Authorities, each with its own application portal, its own forms, its own waiting list rules, and its own inscrutable jargon. A single household searching for help may need to navigate five or six different authority websites, each laid out differently and each requiring a separate application. That’s an enormous burden to place on people who, almost by definition, don’t have spare time or money to spend deciphering bureaucracy.
Housing Ledger is our small contribution toward fixing that. We don’t replace the application process — only your local PHA can put you on a waiting list — but we do try to make finding the right authority as fast and frictionless as possible. Type a city, click a state, browse a list of every PHA in your area, and click through to the agency’s contact details. That’s it.
Where Our Data Comes From
The directory is built from HUD’s publicly available Public Housing Authority dataset, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes through its ArcGIS feature service at services.arcgis.com. That dataset contains the legal name, mailing address, primary phone number, and program participation for every PHA recognized by HUD. We refresh our copy of the data periodically and add slugs, internal links, and editorial guidance, but the underlying contact information always traces back to HUD’s own published records.
Because PHAs occasionally merge, dissolve, change names, or move offices, the most authoritative source for any individual authority is always the agency’s own website. If you spot information on this site that contradicts what the agency itself is publishing, please let us know and we’ll prioritize correcting it.
What We Are Not
Housing Ledger is not a Public Housing Authority. We don’t maintain waiting lists, accept applications, issue Section 8 vouchers, or have any authority over who is admitted into federally subsidized housing. We are also not affiliated with HUD or any other branch of the U.S. government. We’re an independent editorial project, supported by tasteful, clearly labeled advertising on a handful of pages.
We never charge applicants. If anyone — whether claiming to represent us, HUD, or a Public Housing Authority — asks you to pay a fee in exchange for placing your name on a waiting list or guaranteeing you a voucher, that is a scam. Walk away and report it to your local Attorney General’s office.
How You Can Help
The single most useful thing you can do is tell us when our information is wrong. If you’ve recently called a housing authority and discovered their phone number has changed, or if a waiting list listed as closed is actually open (or vice versa), drop us a line through the contact form. Real reports from people on the ground are the best way to keep this directory accurate between official HUD data refreshes.