Home / Rental Assistance Demonstration


Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD)


RAD was created in order to give public housing authorities (PHAs) a powerful tool to preserve and improve public housing properties and address the $26 billion dollar nationwide backlog of deferred maintenance. RAD also gives owners of three HUD "legacy" program (Rent Supplement, Rental Assistance Payment, and Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation) the opportunity to enter into long-term contracts that facilitate the financing of improvements.

Five Things You Should Know About Public Housing Conversions
  1. RAD allows public housing agencies to leverage public and private debt and equity in order to reinvest in the public housing stock. This is critical given the 25.6 billion dollar backlog of public housing capital improvements.
  2. In RAD, units move to a Section 8 platform with a long-term contract that, by law, must be renewed. This ensures that the units remain permanently affordable to low-income households.
  3. Residents continue to pay 30% of their income towards the rent and they maintain the same basic rights as they possess in the public housing program.
  4. RAD maintains the public stewardship of the converted property through clear rules on ongoing ownership and use.
  5. The RAD program is cost-neutral and does not increase HUD's budget. This program simply shifts units from the Public Housing program to the Section 8 program so thatproviders may leverage the private capital markets to make capital improvements.
RAD What's New
  • RAD Successfully Winds Down Rent Supp Legacy Program, Preserving More Than 13,000 Affordable Housing Homes, Saving Residents from Displacement. Read more about it here. (2/12/2019)
  • Updates available for the Closed Transactions under 2nd Component and Potential RAD Mod Rehab Projects lists. For more information visit our RAD 2 web page. (2/12/2019) 
  • New Photo Essay: RAD in Nashville, Tennessee, "Building a Community Into the City's Future," is now available. To view the essay visit our Photo Essay web page. (2/6/2019)
  • New RAD Rents for 2019 now available! For more information on RAD Rents visit the "RAD Rents for Public Housing Conversions" section of the RAD Statutes, Notices, Regulations and Tools web page. (12/17/2018)
  • On Tuesday, December 11, HUD published a brief Federal Register Notice that revises RAD Second Component. The Notice is available here. (12/17/2018)
RAD in the News
  • "RAD Preserves Affordable Housing in Neptune, New Jersey," published by the PD&R Edge Online Magazine, tells the story on how Silver Vistas added 84 subsidized units, preserving the long-term affordability under the RAD Program. Read more about it here. (2/5/2019)
  • New Video Essay: RAD in El Paso, Texas, "From Public Housing to Homes," is now available. To see our first ever video essay about how RAD transformed this community visit our Photo Essay web page. (11/19/2018) 
  • Private case study by Novogradac examining, HTCs and RAD Projects on a Smaller Scale, "The Case of Liberty Village and Liberty Square in Groesbeck, Texas". (Published 11/2018) To read more click here or visit "Case Studies" on our web page.
  • RAD hits 100,000 homes preserved! As RAD celebrates converting 100,000 public housing homes, we have captured the experience from the resident's perspective. Read more about it visit our Newsletter web page. 
RAD More Information
  • RAD Training 2018, "Keys to a Successful RAD Conversion" is available on our Events-RAD Training web page.
  • RAD Facts Sheets are available on the RAD Residents web page. Fact Sheets for Mod Rehab, Rent Supp and RAP are also available.
  • RAD data is available to the public. Visit the RAD Resource Desk and click on “Data and Resources.”
  • RAD resources and information are now on HUD Exchange.
  • RAD Photo Essays documents a series of resident experience for properties that go through a RAD conversion.
  • RAD Curb Appeal Project displays examples of PHAs who have been able to demonstrate good practices of curb appeal.
  • RAD Newsletter current and past issues available on the RAD Newsletter web page.
  • The RADBlast!, an electronic communication sent to subscribers of our mailing list is now available online.
  • RAD Case Studies of various projects have successfully converted to RAD in different communities across America is available.
  • RAD Contact Information
    • Email rad@hud.gov for information about RAD 1st Component
    • Email rad2@hud.gov for information about RAD 2nd Component
  • To receive periodic updates about the RAD program, join our mailing list.