If your loved one lives in public housing, uses a Housing Choice Voucher (often called Section 8), or rents an apartment with federal rental help, the rules for counting income and savings are changing. This affects your whole family, not just your loved one.

The changes come from a 2016 law, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has phased them in over several years. Starting January 1, 2027 here are the new rules and what it means if your loved one has a special needs trust.

A New Limit on Savings

In public housing and Section 8 programs, the new limit on savings and other assets is $109,797 for 2027. HUD adjusts it each year for inflation.

  • New applicants: a household with more than the limit can’t qualify.
  • Families already getting help: the agency or building owner decides whether to enforce the limit. Ask for its policy in writing.

The limit counts what everyone in the household owns.

What Counts and What Doesn’t

These don’t count toward the limit:

  • A special needs trust that no one in the household can revoke or control
  • Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts, 529 college savings plans, and Coverdell education accounts
  • Retirement accounts, such as a 401(k) or an individual retirement account (IRA)
  • Things the household needs to live and work, like a car or medical equipment
  • Money from a lawsuit or settlement over malpractice or negligence that caused a family member’s disability

Bank accounts, investments, and extras like a boat work differently. If their total is $54,898 or less in 2027, none of it counts. If the total is higher, all of it counts.

Who serves as trustee matters. If a parent who lives with your loved one is the trustee, ask your attorney whether that could be seen as control and whether an independent trustee or co-trustee makes sense.

How Trust Payouts Affect Rent

Rent in these programs is generally based on 30% of the household’s monthly income after certain deductions. HUD counts trust payouts this way:

  • Payouts of the money put into the trust (the principal) don’t count as income.
  • Payouts of what the trust earns, such as interest and dividends, generally do count. They can raise rent.

If the trustee pays bills directly, ask your agency how it counts those payments.

Rent changes during the year. A raise at work usually waits until the next yearly review. Bigger payouts of trust earnings or other income can change rent sooner, if they raise the household’s income by 10% or more.

Moving household money into a trust. If anyone in the household moves their own money into a trust, it still counts toward the limit for two years. Talk with your attorney before moving your loved one’s own money, such as an inheritance.

The Medical Expense Deduction Is Getting Smaller

Households whose head or spouse is 62 or older or has a disability can deduct medical costs that insurance doesn’t pay. Under the old rule, costs above 3% of yearly income counted. The new threshold is 10%. If your household already takes this deduction, the change may phase in over two years. Ask your agency.

Two other deductions go up slightly in 2027. Households whose head or spouse is 62 or older or has a disability get $575. Every household gets $525 for each dependent. A loved one with a disability who lives with you counts as a dependent at any age.

A Checklist Before January

  • Ask your housing agency or property manager for its written HOTMA policies, including whether it enforces the savings limit for families already getting help.
  • Keep a copy of the trust document ready. Ask your attorney what the agency may need to see.
  • Ask the trustee how payouts are recorded: principal or earnings.
  • List ABLE, retirement, and 529 accounts. They don’t count but you may need to show them.
  • Save medical receipts.
  • Before moving your loved one’s own money into a trust, ask your attorney about the two-year look-back.

Key takeaway: The new rules look at your whole household, not just your loved one. A special needs trust that no one in the household controls doesn’t count toward the savings limit. When the trust pays out, the money put into it doesn’t raise rent. Payouts of what the trust earns can.

A Note for North Carolina Families

HUD sets these rules nationally, but each housing agency and building owner writes its own policies within them. Ask your local housing agency or property manager for theirs. HUD’s website lists North Carolina’s housing agencies.

For a broader look at where your loved one might live, see “Beyond the Group Home: Special Needs Housing Options.”

If you would like help looking at how your loved one’s trust and savings fit these rules, a Trailhead Meeting is a good place to start.

Schedule a Trailhead Meeting

Figures and rules current as of October 2026.