The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), authorized by Congress in 2012, enables public housing authorities (PHAs) to convert their public housing stock to project-based Section 8 housing, using either Project-Based Vouchers (PBVs) or Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) contracts. This alternative funding structure is meant to address both the short-term capital needs of public housing properties and their longer-term preservation, revitalization, and financial viability. RAD also provides certain tenant protections, such as prohibiting the rescreening of residents after the conversion; the right-to-return to an assisted unit if residents need to be temporarily relocated during rehabilitation or construction; and a right to exercise a “Choice Mobility” option, which makes RAD tenants eligible to obtain a tenant-based Section 8 Voucher after residing at a RAD property for a minimum period.

This report is part of five studies conducted in response to Congress’s request to evaluate RAD’s implementation and its impact on tenants, related protections, including the Choice Mobility option, and long-term preservation of housing affordability. This study provides the first estimate of the universe of RAD tenants and the use of Choice Mobility in RAD properties based on an analysis of multiple HUD administrative datasets. It also assesses the experience and outcomes of PHAs, property owners, and residents with the Choice Mobility option through interviews and an online survey of RAD PHAs, property owners, RAD residents who used Choice Mobility, and RAD residents eligible for Choice Mobility who did not use it.

Below is a list of the studies conducted as part of the RAD evaluation:

• Asset Management of RAD-Converted Properties
• Implementation and Impact of the Choice Mobility Option
• Rental Affordability
• Organizational Change of Public Housing Agencies