Porting a New Orleans Section 8 voucher: the complete guide

Last updated 2026-07-10

What does 'porting' a Section 8 voucher actually mean?

Porting is the technical term for moving your Housing Choice Voucher Program subsidy from one housing authority's territory to another. Congress built portability into the program on purpose. Families shouldn't be stuck in one city just because that's where they first got help.

A port involves two housing authorities. There's the one that issued your voucher, called the initial PHA, and the one covering the place you want to move to, called the receiving PHA. HANO, the New Orleans Housing Authority, plays the initial PHA when you leave and the receiving PHA when you arrive from somewhere else.

Portability lives in 24 CFR 982.353 and 24 CFR 982.355 ^[1]. The rules hand both authorities specific jobs and specific deadlines. The receiving PHA can either absorb your voucher into its own program or keep billing HANO, and which one it picks depends on its funding and its local policy.

Who is eligible to port a HANO voucher?

Residency is the first gate. Under 24 CFR 982.353(b), you have to live in HANO's jurisdiction for at least 12 months before you can port out ^[1]. Two exceptions cut through that rule.

First, if you came to New Orleans by porting in from another PHA, you can port back out right away. The 12-month clock doesn't apply, because you were already in the federal program before you arrived. Second, survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking can port immediately under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), no matter how long they've been in the unit ^[2].

Your voucher also has to be in good standing. That means no unresolved lease violations, no money owed to HANO, and a voucher that hasn't expired. If HANO terminated your assistance or you're in the middle of an informal hearing, you're stuck until that clears. And a spot on HANO's waiting list is not a voucher. Waitlist applicants can't port at all.

How does the HANO portability process work, step by step?

The process has more moving pieces than people expect, and the delays almost always hit at the handoff between the two authorities. Here's how it runs.

Step 1: Notify HANO in writing. Tell your HANO caseworker you intend to port. Do it before your voucher term expires. HANO gives you a portability packet with a Request for Tenancy Approval (RFTA) form, a copy of your voucher, and documentation of your family composition and income.

Step 2: Contact the receiving PHA. You identify where you're going. Look up the PHA covering that city or county. HUD's PHA contact directory is at hud.gov ^[3]. Call or email and ask for their portability coordinator. Tell them HANO is sending a packet.

Step 3: HANO sends the packet. Under 24 CFR 982.355(d), HANO has to send the portability packet to the receiving PHA within 10 business days of your request ^[1]. Gather your documents before you request the port, because delays on your end eat into that clock.

Step 4: The receiving PHA processes your voucher. Once the packet lands, the receiving PHA issues you a voucher under its own payment standards and rules. That takes a few days to several weeks depending on their workload. They schedule a briefing, give you a search period (usually 60 to 120 days, varies by PHA), and you go find a unit.

Step 5: Inspection and lease-up. The receiving PHA inspects the unit you pick, approves the rent if it fits their payment standard, and signs a Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) contract with the landlord. Your lease starts. Your subsidy is live in the new city.

From first notice to move-in, the whole thing usually runs 30 to 90 days ^[4]. Budget for the long end.

What are the HANO payment standards, and how do they affect your port?

Here's the part most people skip until it burns them. Payment standards matter because the receiving PHA uses its own numbers, not HANO's, the moment you're in its jurisdiction.

HANO bases its payment standards on HUD-published Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for the New Orleans-Metairie metro area ^[5]. HUD recalculates FMRs every year, usually effective October 1. For Fiscal Year 2024, the New Orleans-Metairie FMR for a two-bedroom unit was roughly $1,352 a month ^[5]. PHAs can set payment standards between 90% and 110% of FMR without HUD approval, and up to 120% with it.

Bedroom Size	FY2024 FMR (New Orleans-Metairie)
0-BR (efficiency)	$969
1-BR	$1,085
2-BR	$1,352
3-BR	$1,721
4-BR	$2,069

Source: HUD FY2024 Fair Market Rents ^[5]

Port to Austin or Denver and the receiving PHA's payment standards might run much higher, covering more rent. Port to some older industrial city and they might run lower. Before you settle on a neighborhood, pull the receiving PHA's current payment standards and set them next to real market rents in the areas you're eyeing. No sense burning your search period on units the PHA can't approve.

Can the receiving PHA refuse to take your voucher?

Yes, but only in one narrow spot: absorption limits. Under HUD rules, the receiving PHA can decline to absorb your voucher into its own program if it doesn't have the funding or the voucher availability ^[1]. Even then, it still has to give you assistance on a billing basis, which means HANO keeps paying and the receiving PHA administers the voucher locally.

A handful of situations let a receiving PHA refuse a participant outright. A history of drug-related criminal activity or violent criminal activity can trigger a denial under 24 CFR 982.553 ^[11]. That's the PHA's call. Some are stricter than others.

What a receiving PHA cannot do is refuse portability requests across the board as a matter of policy. HUD has said plainly that blanket portability restrictions break program rules. If you think a PHA is blocking your port improperly, file a complaint through HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity ^[6].

What if you want to port INTO New Orleans with a voucher from another city?

HANO is the receiving PHA here. Contact your current (initial) PHA, tell them you want to port to New Orleans, and they send HANO the portability packet.

HANO's contact details and portability procedures are on the HANO website ^[10]. Its jurisdiction covers Orleans Parish. If you're looking at Jefferson Parish (Metairie, Kenner, Gretna), that's the Housing Authority of Jefferson Parish, a separate PHA.

Once HANO gets your packet, it issues a voucher and schedules a briefing. The search period usually runs 120 days, and HANO can grant extensions. New Orleans has wrestled with housing supply since Hurricane Katrina, and the rental market got tighter after 2020 ^[7]. Plan for a real search. If you want a head start on landlords who accept vouchers, tools like those at VoucherReady let you filter listings by bedroom size before your clock starts.

One thing to know. HANO has historically run an absorbed voucher count that sits close to its allocated units. If HANO can't absorb you, it administers your voucher on a billing basis, which works the same for you as a tenant.

How long does your voucher stay valid during the port process?

Your HANO voucher term keeps ticking while the paperwork travels. That's a real risk.

HANO issues vouchers with hard expiration dates, usually 60 to 120 days out. Say you request a port, HANO takes its 10 business days to send the packet, and the receiving PHA takes three weeks to process it. You might have a month left to find a unit.

Request your port early in the voucher term, not in the last two weeks. Both HANO and the receiving PHA can grant extensions, and they usually do for port situations because 24 CFR 982.303 lets a PHA extend the term when delays are outside the family's control ^[1]. But "they usually do" is not a promise, and you don't want to be begging for an extension while apartment hunting in a city you don't know.

Ask both PHAs straight out: what is my current expiration date, and will you extend it if the port runs long? Get the answer in writing.

Do you have to pay anything during a port?

The port itself is free. HANO charges no porting fee, and no legitimate receiving PHA does either. HUD prohibits it.

Your regular obligations stay put. You still owe your share of rent, based on 30% of your adjusted monthly income (it can run higher in some cases). You still need a security deposit in the new city. Louisiana caps residential security deposits at one month's rent under Louisiana Civil Code Art. 2707 ^[8], but every state is different. Texas, Florida, and most others don't cap deposits by statute.

Port to a high-cost market and the gap between what the receiving PHA pays and what landlords actually charge can be steep. Some tenants find they can't make a port pencil out even when the mechanics go clean. Run the numbers before you commit.

What happens to your lease when you port out of New Orleans?

You have to end your current lease the right way before you move. Porting doesn't dissolve a lease for you.

If you're still in the initial term (usually the first year), you generally can't move without the landlord's agreement unless you qualify for an exception. VAWA protections let survivors break a lease ^[2]. Military deployment orders let you break one under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Otherwise you negotiate with the landlord or wait for the lease to allow termination.

Once you're month-to-month or near a natural lease end, give proper written notice (New Orleans leases usually want 30 days, but read your actual lease). Tell HANO too. They need to know when your current lease ends so they can time the portability packet right.

Walk out without proper notice and you could owe the landlord back rent, and that debt follows you. Some PHAs check for outstanding landlord debts when they process port-ins, and a record of lease abandonment can be grounds for denial.

What documents do you need to start the port?

Pull these together before you call HANO. A ready file cuts processing time by real amounts.

• Current HANO voucher (the original document with your voucher number)
• Government-issued photo ID for every adult in the household
• Birth certificates or proof of relationship for any children
• Most recent pay stubs, benefit award letters, or other income documentation for all earners
• Documentation of your current address and lease
• If you're under the 12-month residency requirement, proof of your exception (prior port documentation, or VAWA documentation if it applies)
• If you're applying as a domestic violence survivor, HUD Form 5382 (VAWA certification) ^[2]

HANO may want more depending on your family makeup or income sources. Social Security recipients should have their most recent SSA award letter. If anyone in the household gets child support, court orders or payment records help.

Get all of this together and your HANO caseworker can move fast. The bottleneck is almost always the tenant side, not HANO's 10-day transmission window.

What are common reasons port requests get delayed or denied?

A few patterns show up again and again.

Unpaid tenant-caused damages. Owe money to HANO or to a former landlord in HANO's system, and HANO can sit on the portability packet until the debt clears. It's not a formal denial, but it blocks you cold.

Expired voucher. Let your voucher expire before you request the port and there's nothing left to port. HANO can't reissue without an administrative process, and there's no guarantee it will.

Household composition changes you never reported. Add a household member (a new baby, a partner) without telling HANO and your file goes stale. The receiving PHA will catch it. Fix it before you request the port.

Criminal history screens at the receiving PHA. PHAs have discretion here. If someone in your household has a disqualifying record under the receiving PHA's admissions policy, they can deny you. HUD's 2016 guidance on criminal history and fair housing is worth reading if that's a worry ^[6].

Destination PHA is closed to portability. Some PHAs in very tight markets have squeezed their port-in capacity. That's only allowed in narrow cases, but it happens. Call ahead before you assume the receiving PHA will take you.

If you want help deciding whether to port and how to assemble a clean file, VoucherReady's free tenant tools run through the checklist before you contact HANO.

How do landlords handle a porting tenant differently from a regular voucher holder?

From a landlord's daily view, a porting tenant looks almost identical to a locally-issued voucher holder once the lease starts. The HAP contract is with the receiving PHA, not HANO. The receiving PHA pays the rent. The landlord deals with the receiving PHA for inspections, rent increases, and anything administrative.

The real difference is timing. Port tenants often show up with a search period already running, so their setup window is shorter. A landlord who needs six weeks to process an application can accidentally knock out a port applicant who has to execute a lease sooner.

If you're a New Orleans landlord thinking about accepting port-in tenants from other PHAs, the process matches accepting any voucher. HANO inspects the unit, applies its payment standards, and signs a HAP contract with you. The housing section 8 program page covers the basics of becoming a participating landlord.

If you're newer to the voucher program, the VoucherReady landlord kit walks through HAP contracts, required lease addenda, and inspection checklists in one place.

What is 'absorption' and does it affect your port?

Absorption is when the receiving PHA takes over full funding for your voucher. Instead of billing HANO every month, it uses one of its own funded slots. For you, the difference is mostly invisible. Your subsidy works the same either way.

Under 24 CFR 982.355(e), PHAs have to absorb portable vouchers when they have the funding capacity ^[1]. HUD's policy pushes toward absorption because billing creates administrative headaches. But PHAs in high-demand areas often have no spare slots, so plenty of ports run on a billing basis for months, sometimes years, before the receiving PHA absorbs the voucher.

Here's the practical risk. If the billing relationship between the two authorities breaks down (slow payment from HANO, an administrative error, a communication failure), your housing payment can get disrupted through no fault of yours. Rare, but it happens. Keep HANO's portability coordinator in your contacts even after you move, especially on a billing arrangement.

HUD's formal briefing guidance puts it this way: "portability billing ends when the receiving PHA absorbs the family or the family moves out of the receiving PHA's jurisdiction" ^[4].

Frequently asked questions

How long do you have to live in New Orleans before you can port your HANO voucher?

The standard requirement is 12 months of continuous residence in HANO's jurisdiction before you can port out. Two exceptions apply. If you originally ported into New Orleans from another PHA, you can port back out right away. Survivors of domestic violence can also port immediately under VAWA, regardless of how long they've been in their current unit. This is set in 24 CFR 982.353(b).

Can I port my voucher to any state, or only within Louisiana?

You can port to any state. The Housing Choice Voucher program is federal, and portability rights cover all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other HUD-assisted jurisdictions. There's no geographic limit beyond needing a functioning PHA in the destination area. You do have to contact the receiving PHA in the specific city or county you're moving to, since each PHA covers its own turf.

Does HANO send the portability packet automatically, or do I have to request it?

You have to request it. Nothing moves until you notify HANO in writing that you want to port. Once you do, HANO has 10 business days to send the portability packet to the receiving PHA under 24 CFR 982.355(d). Request the port before your voucher expires, and make sure your household file is current and complete so you don't stall the clock.

What happens to my HANO voucher search period while the port is being processed?

Your original HANO search period doesn't pause during the port, which is why timing matters. If your voucher expires before the receiving PHA issues its own voucher, you lose your place. Request the port early. Both HANO and the receiving PHA can grant extensions when delays are outside your control, but ask directly and get confirmation in writing.

Can the receiving PHA reject me because of my credit history?

PHAs can screen applicants on criminal history, prior evictions, and past debts to PHAs. Credit checks are less common in voucher programs than in private rentals, but individual landlords in the new city will still run their own. The PHA's denial authority mostly targets drug-related or violent criminal activity under 24 CFR 982.553. Ask the receiving PHA for a copy of their Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP) before you apply.

Will the receiving PHA use HANO's payment standard or their own?

The receiving PHA uses its own payment standards once your voucher is active in its jurisdiction. That can help or hurt depending on where you go. High-cost cities like San Francisco or New York have much higher payment standards than New Orleans. Lower-cost Midwestern cities may run lower. Always check the receiving PHA's current payment standards against real market rents in your target neighborhoods before you commit.

Do I need to find an apartment in the new city before I request the port?

No. Request the port first, get the receiving PHA to issue you a voucher, then search for a unit inside their search period. Do not sign a lease before you have a valid voucher from the receiving PHA. Sign early and let the port fall through and you're personally on the hook for that rent. The order matters: request port, get receiving voucher, then search.

What if Jefferson Parish (Metairie) is where I want to move, not Orleans Parish?

Jefferson Parish has its own housing authority, the Housing Authority of Jefferson Parish (HAJP), completely separate from HANO. If you want Metairie, Kenner, Gretna, or other Jefferson Parish areas, the port goes to HAJP, not HANO. If you're leaving New Orleans and heading to Jefferson, HANO still sends the initial portability packet, and HAJP becomes the receiving PHA.

Can my landlord in New Orleans refuse to let me break my lease to port?

Yes. During an active lease term, a landlord can generally hold you to the lease unless you have a legal basis to end it early (VAWA protections, military deployment, or a lease clause that allows it). Once you're month-to-month or near the natural end, give proper written notice as the lease requires, usually 30 days. Porting doesn't override contract law. Line up your port timing with a natural lease termination when you can.

How is the billing handled between HANO and the receiving PHA?

Until the receiving PHA absorbs your voucher, HANO keeps funding your subsidy and bills the receiving PHA for administrative fees. The receiving PHA handles day-to-day work (inspections, landlord communication, annual reviews) while HANO sends the housing assistance payments. Under 24 CFR 982.355(e), the receiving PHA has to absorb you when it has enough funding capacity. Keep HANO's portability contact handy in case of payment disruptions during a billing arrangement.

Can I port back to New Orleans from another city?

Yes. If you ported out of New Orleans with a HANO voucher, you can port back in. Contact your current (initial) PHA and tell them you want to port to Orleans Parish, Louisiana. They send a packet to HANO. HANO then becomes the receiving PHA and issues you a voucher under its payment standards and search period rules. The same 12-month residency requirement applies to future outbound ports after you're back.

What is VAWA and how does it affect my ability to port immediately?

VAWA stands for the Violence Against Women Act. It protects survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in federally assisted housing, including the Housing Choice Voucher program. One protection is the right to port immediately, without the 12-month wait. You document your status with HUD Form 5382. A PHA cannot disclose your VAWA status to your abuser or to other parties without your written consent.

Is there a fee to port a Section 8 voucher?

No. Neither HANO nor the receiving PHA can charge you to process a portability request. If anyone asks for a payment tied to your voucher port, that's a red flag for fraud. Report it to HUD's Office of Inspector General. Your obligations during the port are the same as always: pay your share of rent and any required security deposit in the new city.

What is the difference between 'portable' vouchers and 'project-based' vouchers?

Project-based vouchers (PBVs) attach to a specific unit, not to you. You cannot port a project-based voucher. If you've lived in a PBV unit for at least one year and you're in good standing, you can request a tenant-based voucher, and once you have that, you can port. Know which type you have before you plan a move. HANO can tell you.

Sources

1. HUD, 24 CFR Part 982 (Housing Choice Vouchers): Portability eligibility, 10-business-day packet transmission requirement, absorption rules, and extension authority under 24 CFR 982.353, 982.355, and 982.303
2. HUD, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Housing Protections: VAWA lets survivors of domestic violence port immediately without the 12-month residency wait; HUD Form 5382 is the VAWA certification and status cannot be disclosed without written consent
3. HUD, PHA Contact Information Directory: HUD maintains a directory of PHA contacts for all jurisdictions
4. HUD, Housing Choice Voucher Program Guidebook (Portability): Ports typically run 30 to 90 days from notice to move-in; portability billing ends when the receiving PHA absorbs the family or the family moves out of its jurisdiction
5. HUD, Fair Market Rents (FY2024), New Orleans-Metairie HUD Metro FMR Area: FY2024 FMRs for New Orleans-Metairie: efficiency $969, 1-BR $1,085, 2-BR $1,352, 3-BR $1,721, 4-BR $2,069; PHAs set payment standards from 90% to 110% of FMR without HUD approval, up to 120% with approval
6. HUD, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity: HUD FHEO handles complaints about improper portability denials; HUD's 2016 guidance addressed criminal history screening and fair housing
7. Urban Institute: New Orleans rental market tightened significantly after 2020, with rising rents and reduced vacancy rates
8. Louisiana State Legislature, Louisiana Civil Code Art. 2707 (Security Deposits): Louisiana caps residential security deposits at one month's rent equivalent
9. New Orleans Housing Authority (HANO), Official Website: HANO administers the Housing Choice Voucher program for Orleans Parish and is the initial PHA for New Orleans voucher holders
10. HUD, 24 CFR 982.553 (Denial of Admission and Termination for Drug-Related and Violent Criminal Activity): PHAs have discretion to deny port-in applicants with drug-related or violent criminal history under 24 CFR 982.553