Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program

ATTN:  All tenants are still required to pay their portion of the rent during COVID-19 outbreak

Residents who experience a change of income through potential lay-offs or terminations due to business closures are encouraged to report income changes immediately by providing documentation of the decrease.

Clients: Report Changes As Soon As Possible! 

In order for changes to Rent to take effect the following month, you must report any changes in employment/income or household composition by the 15th of the month. Examples:

• If a decrease change is received on July 8, the change in tenant payment will be for August 1.
• If the change is not received until July 16, the change in tenant payment will be effective September 1.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (formerly known as Section 8 Vouchers) is a federally funded, locally administered rental assistance program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HCV is administered locally by the New Castle County Housing Authority (NCCHA).  NCCHA currently helps to house over 1,700 families throughout New Castle County, Delaware, except within the city limits of Wilmington and Newark, which are served by their own public housing authorities. 

You can find out more about the basics of the HCV Program here.

**Announcement:  NCCHA Suspends Office Visits and Routine Inspections amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Due to concerns about the Corona Virus pandemic, effective March 16, 2020, clients should not come into the New Castle County Gilliam Building to drop off any paperwork. All business should be handled by phone, email, mail or fax. 

In addition, Annual Inspections have been suspended until further notice. Re-inspections and Special/Emergency inspections will be handled remotely as possible, and Initial inspections of unoccupied units will proceed as normal. 

Finally, NCCHA has suspended acceptance of all "Port-In" cases from housing authorities located in other states.

For further info, please see the County’s COVID-19 Resource Page, or our NCCHA Staff page.

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ALERT:  Beware of New SCAMS.... 

NCCHA has become aware that people are receiving text messages claiming to be from "NCC" and stating that the recipient has been accepted onto a waiting list for housing. These *are not* being sent by NCCHA or any other part of New Castle County’s government. If you receive such a message, please report it as Fraud/Spam and do not give out any personal information or act on it in any way.  

In addition, the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration has released this letter warning of a new Social Security "Benefit Suspension" Scam being perpetrated in the wake of COVID-19 office closures. You can read that statement here.

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Announcement:  Housing Assistant Job Opening

NCCHA congratulates Sue Lucy on her selection as our new Assistant Administrator for the HCV Program. That means we need a new caseworker, and the open Housing Program Assistant position is detailed here.

Announcement: NCCHA Now Using DelawareHousingSearch.Org for ALL Unit Listings

NCCHA is no longer maintaining unit listings. While these lists have long been maintained as a courtesy to clients and landlords, it has always been clients’ ultimate responsibility to find the units they want to rent. Furthermore, there are now more powerful tools for finding housing, including the listings at DelawareHousingSearch.org. Program landlords are encouraged to utilize that site and others to list their properties where HCV renters will find them.

Current Base* Payment Standards for NCC:

(Effective as of January 1, 2019)

* Please note that recent HUD regulations add some variability to the Payment Standard in some New Castle County zip codes, where the Standard may be higher.

Utility Assistance Payment (UAP) Standards

• UAP Payment Standard (Effective July 1, 2019)

NCCHA Administrative Plan (2018)

As of June 2019, NCCHA has adopted a revised "Administrative Plan," which outlines specifically how NCCHA interprets and operates the HCV Program within its jurisdiction, as well as local policies and standards. (Click on the link above to view the document.)

Updated 4/1/2020