Section 8 Waiting Lists Opening in Early September 2026

September opens with a bang. Ten housing authorities are opening waiting lists as the month gets underway, spanning New York, Virginia, Florida, Oregon, Indiana, Hawaii, Ohio, and California. Most of the action is packed into the first couple of days—five lists opening as the week starts and four more the next day—so this is a week to be organized and ready. It leans slightly toward Project-Based Vouchers on the California side, with a solid batch of portable Housing Choice Vouchers elsewhere, including an island opportunity in Hawaii.

Here's what's opening.

Village of Cobleskill — Cobleskill, New York

Cobleskill opens a Housing Choice Voucher list on Monday, August 31. There's no website on file, so you'll need to contact the village housing office directly for application details—reach out right away rather than waiting.

Cobleskill is a small college town in the Schoharie Valley west of Albany, home to a SUNY campus. As a portable Housing Choice Voucher program, it lets you choose your own housing and pay roughly 30% of your income toward rent. Smaller markets like this usually see lighter competition, so getting your application in promptly is worth it.

Loudoun County DHCD — Loudoun County, Virginia

Loudoun County opens its Housing Choice Voucher list on Monday, August 31, with applications online at loudoun.gov/HCD.

This is one of the higher-demand openings of the week. Loudoun is in the outer DC metro—one of the most expensive parts of Virginia—which makes a portable voucher here especially valuable. Note that Loudoun runs several housing programs, including its Affordable Dwelling Unit programs, but this opening is the traditional Housing Choice Voucher. Apply early given the market.

Housing Authority of New Smyrna Beach — New Smyrna Beach, Florida

New Smyrna Beach opens a Housing Choice Voucher list on Monday, August 31, with applications online at nsbha.org.

This is a coastal Volusia County community on Florida's Atlantic side, just south of Daytona Beach. The portable voucher gives you flexibility to settle across the area—useful in a beach market where rents can swing seasonally. Moderate demand expected; apply early Monday.

Housing Authority of Clackamas County — Clackamas County, Oregon

Clackamas County opens a Project-Based Voucher list on Monday, August 31, with applications online at clackamas.us.

If this authority looks familiar, it's because Clackamas opened a Housing Choice Voucher list just days earlier—this PBV opening is a separate program on a separate track. If you applied to the HCV list, this doesn't replace it, and applying to both is reasonable if property-based housing suits you. Clackamas sits south of Portland, covering suburbs like Oregon City and Lake Oswego along with rural stretches toward Mount Hood. Since it's a PBV, ask which developments are included before applying.

Housing Authority of the City of Mishawaka — Mishawaka, Indiana

Mishawaka opens its Housing Choice Voucher list on Monday, August 31, with applications online at affordablehousingmishawaka.com.

Mishawaka is part of the South Bend metro in northern Indiana, near the Michigan border and Notre Dame. The portable voucher lets you choose housing across the area, and the twin-city setup with South Bend means a reasonably sized rental market to work with.

Kauai County Housing Agency — Kauai, Hawaii

Kauai opens a Housing Choice Voucher list on Tuesday, September 1, with applications online at kauai.gov.

This is the standout for anyone in the islands. Kauai is Hawaii's northernmost main island, and affordable housing there is scarce and highly sought after, so a portable voucher is a genuine opportunity. Island markets come with their own considerations—higher costs and limited inventory—so having your documents fully in order before you apply matters even more here. Apply early Tuesday.

Housing Authority of Jackson County — Jackson County, Oregon

Jackson County opens a Project-Based Voucher list on Tuesday, September 1, with applications online at hajc.net.

Jackson County is in southern Oregon, centered on Medford and Ashland in the Rogue Valley. As a Project-Based Voucher program, the assistance ties to specific properties in exchange for typically shorter waits. It's worth calling to ask about locations and unit sizes before you apply.

Emerald Development and Economic Network (EDEN) — Cleveland, Ohio

EDEN opens a Project-Based Voucher list on Tuesday, September 1, with applications online at edencle.org.

EDEN is a Cleveland-based nonprofit that provides housing tied to supportive services, so this program often serves people who benefit from that added structure. Because it's project-based, the housing is at specific locations—reach out to understand which properties are involved and any program-specific eligibility before applying.

County of Sacramento Housing Authority — Sacramento County, California

Sacramento County opens a Project-Based Voucher list on Tuesday, September 1, with applications online at shra.org.

This is a major metro opportunity. The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) serves California's capital region, a large and high-demand market. A Project-Based Voucher here means a shorter wait than the perpetually backed-up HCV lists, with the tradeoff that housing is tied to specific developments. Given the size of the market, apply early Tuesday and check which properties are part of the program.

Housing Authority of the City of Napa — Napa, California

Napa closes out the run with a Project-Based Voucher list opening Wednesday, September 2, with applications online at cityofnapa.org.

Napa is the heart of California's wine country—a beautiful but very high-cost area where affordable housing is in short supply, which makes this opening meaningful. As a Project-Based Voucher, it's tied to specific properties; worth asking about locations and availability before you apply. Apply early Wednesday.

What to Have Ready

The core documentation is the same across all ten: photo ID and Social Security cards for each household member, birth certificates, recent pay stubs and any benefits statements (SSI, SSDI, TANF, unemployment), two to three months of bank statements, and your current household and contact details. For the Housing Choice Voucher openings—Cobleskill, Loudoun, New Smyrna Beach, Mishawaka, and Kauai—have your rental history and current landlord's contact information ready as well.

Bottom Line

A strong start to September with ten lists and most of them clustered in the first two days, so the key is being ready to move rather than catching up. The opportunities worth prioritizing depend on where you are: Loudoun and Sacramento are the big-metro plays, Kauai is a rare island voucher, and Napa offers a foothold in an otherwise tough wine-country market. California residents have three PBV options in a row—Sacramento, Jackson County's neighbor to the north in Oregon aside—plus Napa the next day. The one bit of early homework is Cobleskill: with no website on file, contact the village office at the outset so you're not caught flat-footed when the list opens.