About The Housing Choice Voucher Program   The Housing Choice Voucher Program provides rental housing assistance to low-income individuals and families who reside within the private rental market. Currently, there are over three (3) million families nationwide that participate in the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The Housing Choice Voucher Program is a win-win situation for the assisted household, landlord and the Housing Authority in that it provides a rent subsidy to a household in need of rental assistance, allows a landlord maximum flexibility to select their tenants and receive a subsidy payment toward the household’s rent, and it assists the Housing Authority in providing local area residents with safe, decent and affordable housing options. The Housing Authority of Joliet currently maintains 1,121 Housing Choice Vouchers and works with over 600 local landlords in providing low-income families with an affordable place to live. The goals of the Housing Authority’s program are to encourage freedom of housing choice and deconcentration of assisted housing outside of geographical areas that are impacted by large concentrations of low-income households and minorities; to provide improved living conditions for low-income families while maintaining rent payment levels at an affordable level; and to encourage economic self-sufficiency. To obtain contact information regarding Housing Choice Voucher Program staff, please click here.   SECTION 8 HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER DECONCENTRATION The Housing Authority of Joliet began tracking the areas where the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher families were able to locate housing in April of 1991. In April of 1991 82% of the families were living on the East side of Joliet, 15% were living on the west side of Joliet, 3% were in units in other communities in Will County. Over the years Section 8 participants have been able to locate units outside of Joliet in many other communities in Will County. In July 2009 72% of the families live on the east side of Joliet, 28% live on Joliet’s west side, 42% live in other communities in Will County and 3% are located in areas outside of Will County. The families residing in unit outside of Joliet are scatter throughout Will County. As of July 2009 15% of the families are in Bolingbrook, 3% reside in Crest Hill, 3% reside in Lockport, 5% are in Plainfield, 6% are in Romeoville, and 5% are in University Park. The other 5% who reside in Will County are located in Braidwood, Channahon, Crete, Frankfort, Manhattan, Minooka, Mokena, Naperville, New Lenox, Rockdale, Sauk Village, Shorewood, Steger and Wilmington. EAST SIDE JOLIET WEST SIDE JOLIET BOLINGBROOK BRAIDWOOD CHANNAHON CRESTHILL CRETE FRANKFORT LOCKPORT MANHATTEN MINOOKA MOKENA MONEE NAPERVILLE NEW LENOX PLAINFIELD ROCKDALE ROMEOVILLE SAUK VILLAGE SHOREWOOD STEGAR UNIVERSITY PK WILMINGTON   318 334 177 6 1 30 5 2 34 2 4 2 2 10 1 57 9 73 1 10 5 57 3   There are a total 652 in the City of Joliet; 491 in Will County, excluding the City of Joliet; and 36 in areas outside Will County. Overall there are a total of 1,179 units or Vouchers. This includes all the port-in and port-out vouchers, as well as, the regular vouchers.