November 1 Deadline Nears for EHV Transitions to HCV or PBV

Public housing agencies have until November 1 to finish moving Emergency Housing Voucher families onto their regular Housing Choice Voucher or project-based voucher programs. After that date, every family still leased under EHV must be converted to a new tenant protection voucher instead, under a HUD notice that formally winds down the pandemic-era program by December 31.

The instructions come from Notice PIH 2026-25, issued September 29, which establishes the requirements, funding process, and timeline for awarding tenant protection vouchers to all EHV families under housing assistance payments contracts as of September 30, 2026. The notice implements section 153 of the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, which funded the conversions and repealed earlier stopgap guidance.

For agencies still deciding how to handle their EHV caseloads, the next several days are the last window in which they have a choice.

HOW THE PROGRAM GOT HERE

The Emergency Housing Voucher program was created under the American Rescue Plan to house people experiencing or at risk of homelessness during the pandemic recovery. The statute barred PHAs from reissuing EHV vouchers after September 30, 2023, so the program has been shrinking by attrition for three years. As funding tightened, Congress first directed stopgap assistance, then in the 2027 continuing resolution repealed that approach and authorized HUD to convert the remaining families to tenant protection vouchers instead.

Notice PIH 2026-25 is the document that executes the conversion. It rescinds the now-unneeded earlier guidance, sets the award formula, and fixes the end date: once the December conversion is complete, the EHV program ceases to exist.

THE NOVEMBER 1 DEADLINE

The notice gives PHAs two paths for each EHV family. The first is a transition: moving the family onto one of the agency's existing Housing Choice Vouchers, using the conversion process and waivers set out in Notice PIH 2025-19, or into a unit in the agency's project-based voucher portfolio where a waiver has been approved. The second is conversion: the family stays put and its voucher becomes an EHV-TPV.

The transition path closes November 1. Any PHA that intends to move families to HCV or PBV assistance between September 30 and November 1 must tell HUD when it receives its estimated award, so the estimate can be reduced accordingly, and all such transitions must be completed no later than November 1, 2026. After that, every remaining EHV family must be converted to an EHV-TPV.

Because November 1 falls on a Sunday this year, the practical last business day for agencies to complete and document transitions is Friday, October 30.

HUD has also closed one side door: the department will no longer accept waiver requests focused on transitioning EHV families to a PHA's PBV program, effective with the notice's September 29 publication. Families already transitioned to HCV or PBV are not eligible for EHV-TPVs, because they are no longer EHV families.

Many agencies have been preparing for exactly this move. A quarterly waiver disclosure HUD published October 27 lists 51 regulatory waivers granted in the first quarter of 2026, and 38 of them waive the waiting-list administration and public-notice rules at 24 CFR 982.204 and 982.206 so PHAs can move EHV families onto their regular HCV waiting lists without a public waitlist opening. Recipients span more than 20 states and Puerto Rico, including the housing authorities in New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, plus Maricopa County, Santa Ana, Chattanooga, and four Puerto Rico municipalities. That waiver route is the mechanism agencies use to complete the transitions that must now wrap up by November 1.

WHAT THE DECEMBER CONVERSION LOOKS LIKE

In December, HUD will award all EHV-TPV funds in a single round, covering one month of assistance - December 2026 - and PHAs will transition every remaining EHV family to the new vouchers. Funding for later months is planned to arrive as first-time renewals, subject to future appropriations.

When the conversion is complete, the EHV program ends. No later than December 31, 2026, PHAs will no longer have EHV families under lease. In early 2027, HUD will begin closing out the program under Notice PIH 2023-35, as amended by Notice PIH 2026-02, and PHAs must remit all unexpended EHV funds.

The timeline has already moved through two checkpoints. On or around October 1, HUD emailed each eligible PHA an estimated award based on the agency's EHV families under lease as of September 30. Agencies that believed HUD's calculation was wrong had until 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern on October 15 to document a correction through the EHV mailbox. HUD will send final award notices several weeks ahead of the December disbursements and will review each award against IMS/PIC and VMS data. Where an agency submitted a correction or documented exception, HUD will reconcile the discrepancy and adjust the award as warranted.

Eligibility reaches beyond the agencies that ran EHV programs of their own. Any PHA administering an EHV household through portability billing as of September 30 - including agencies without EHV programs that chose to bill rather than absorb - is eligible for funding for that family, with HUD using IMS/PIC data to count them.

THE MONEY: $600.6 MILLION, ONE MONTH AT A TIME

The EHV-TPV awards come from $600.6 million made available for tenant protection vouchers under the 2027 continuing resolution. HUD calculates each agency's award from the average per-unit cost in its EHV program and the number of units estimated under lease as of September 30, using July 2026 VMS data and current IMS/PIC reporting. The unit count is the lower of the two figures, except where a correction was accepted. No prior-year or renewal amount carries forward.

The one-month structure is the detail finance staff should not skim past. The December award covers December only. Everything after that depends on future appropriations arriving as renewals - a meaningfully different footing from the American Rescue Plan funding that backed EHV itself.

Administrative fees change, too. Converted vouchers earn the ongoing administrative fee on the same basis as the rest of the agency's HCV program. The EHV-specific administrative fee and the one-time EHV services fee do not apply and may not be claimed for the conversion. PHAs are also not eligible for a transition fee under Notice PIH 2026-12 for converting EHV vouchers to EHV-TPVs, and EHV fees cannot be used to cover conversion costs.

WHAT FAMILIES KEEP

For tenants, the conversion is designed to be invisible. EHV families under lease as of September 30 are considered continuously assisted: PHAs do not need to add them to a waiting list or rescreen them, and families can remain in their current units. The agency's HCV payment standard applies going forward.

Families who were placed on an HCV waiting list but had not yet transitioned are still eligible for an EHV-TPV; they come off the waiting list once the new voucher is issued. In portability cases, the voucher belongs to the PHA administering the family's HAP contract as of September 30, and non-EHV agencies billing for an EHV household through portability are eligible for funding for that family.

Two limits matter for long-term planning. EHV-TPVs are tenant-based only - they cannot be project-based, because they are not replacement vouchers. And when an EHV-TPV family leaves the program, the voucher dies with the move: PHAs must not reissue it, and HUD will reduce the agency's authorized unit months accordingly. PHAs must track EHV-TPVs separately from other vouchers for that reason.

WHAT OPERATORS SHOULD DO THIS WEEK

Agencies still weighing transitions have days, not weeks. Any EHV family a PHA wants on regular HCV or PBV assistance must be fully transitioned by November 1, and the agency must notify HUD upon receiving its estimated award so the estimate can be reduced. Given the Sunday deadline, paperwork should be complete by Friday.

Every other EHV family will convert automatically in December, so agencies should reconcile now: verify that VMS and IMS/PIC reporting matches their actual EHV lease counts, confirm the final award notice when it arrives, and brief finance staff on the one-month funding structure and the end of EHV-specific fees.

Agencies should also start planning for closeout. Unexpended EHV funds go back to HUD in early 2027, and the accelerated reconciliation timeline under PIH 2026-02 is already in effect. HUD retains the authority to terminate, reduce, or limit funding for substantial noncompliance, and awards made in excess of a PHA's actual September 30 lease count may be reduced once September VMS data is available.

Landlord communication belongs on this week's list as well. Families will not move, but the program name and funding stream behind their checks change, and housing authorities that brief landlords before December tend to field fewer panicked calls when the first TPV-funded payments arrive.

The program's replacement is smaller, quieter, and dependent on annual appropriations rather than a one-time rescue appropriation - and the decisions agencies make by Friday will shape which funding stream each of those families lands on. For PHAs that have already moved their EHV families onto regular vouchers, the notice is mostly a confirmation. For everyone else, the next four days decide it.