Fort Worth Benefits

Housing Help in Fort Worth: Affordable Homes, Vouchers, and Emergency Rent Help

Housing Help in Fort Worth: Affordable Homes, Vouchers, and Emergency Rent Help

Fort Worth Benefits guide — facts checked against Fort Worth Housing Solutions and the City of Fort Worth, October 2026.

Rent is due, the money is short, and the first question is always the same: who actually helps with housing in Fort Worth? The honest answer has two parts — there is real help here, and one famous door is currently closed. This guide tells you both, plainly, so you don’t waste weeks waiting on the wrong list.

First, the closed door — the voucher waitlist

The best-known housing help is the Housing Choice Voucher program (often called Section 8), run in Fort Worth by Fort Worth Housing Solutions (FWHS). With a voucher, you pay 30% of your adjusted income toward rent and FWHS pays the difference.

But as of October 2026, the FWHS Housing Choice Voucher Wait List is NOT currently accepting applications. That’s from FWHS’s own page, and we’ll keep saying it plainly: do not wait on that list, and don’t pay anyone who promises to get you on it. When the list reopens, vouchers are assigned from it as they become available — check fwhs.org for any change.

The open doors at Fort Worth Housing Solutions

FWHS is still the biggest housing door in the city — it just opens differently right now:

  • Affordable apartment communities. FWHS owns quality, affordable apartment communities across Fort Worth, including mixed-income properties where some residents pay a lower rent. The move here is direct: go to FWHS’s Housing Assistance Options page at fwhs.org, look at the properties, and contact the property itself to ask about its waitlist and reduced-rent openings.
  • Project-Based Vouchers. Some subsidized units are set aside at specific affordable apartment communities for households earning below 50% of the area’s median income. Tenants in these units also pay 30% of their adjusted income toward rent. These are tied to the property, not portable — you apply through the community that has them.
  • RAD communities. The Rental Assistance Demonstration program offers affordable rent in a variety of Fort Worth apartment units — again, tenants pay 30% of adjusted income, and units open up at different communities at different times. Contact the property directly about its waitlist.

Fort Worth Housing Solutions: 1407 Texas St, Fort Worth, TX 76102 — 817-333-3400 — fwhs.org

You may qualify for these programs if you’re a low- to moderate-income Fort Worth resident. Some properties and programs serve specific groups, including veterans and people experiencing chronic homelessness — ask when you call.

Behind on rent right now? Emergency help

If the problem isn’t finding a new home but keeping the one you have, two doors matter most:

City of Fort Worth — Community Action Partners (CAP). The city’s community action program helps with rent and mortgage payments when funding is available, alongside its utility help. Applications are taken online on scheduled dates or at in-person application events — the office does not take walk-in applications, so start on the official page: fortworthtexas.gov/departments/neighborhoods/cap, or call 817-392-2276. Have your lease, ID, and proof of income ready.

Tarrant County Human Services. If you live in Tarrant County with low income and have a notice to vacate or an eviction letter, the county runs short-term rental assistance for exactly that situation — the county route for residents outside the City of Fort Worth’s own programs. Start at tarrantcounty.com (Human Services) and follow the current intake instructions. Assistance isn’t guaranteed — it depends on your situation and income — but a notice to vacate is exactly the trigger this program exists for, so don’t sit on it.

How to work this, step by step

  1. If you have an eviction notice, start there — CAP and Tarrant County Human Services first, today, because those funds move while they last.
  2. Pick two or three FWHS affordable communities that fit your life — work, school, bus route — and call each one about openings and waitlists.
  3. Ask each property directly about project-based voucher units and RAD openings.
  4. Keep your papers in one folder: ID, proof of income, and your lease. Every one of these doors asks for them.
  5. Check fwhs.org now and then for the voucher waitlist — when it reopens, applying early matters.

One more call worth making

Dial 2-1-1 — free, 24/7, run in Tarrant County by United Way of Tarrant County. If none of the doors above fit, 2-1-1 knows the smaller church and neighborhood programs that don’t have websites. It is always worth pairing with the named programs above, never a substitute for them.

Your next step: See what you qualify for — tell the checker you’re behind on rent and it puts this help first. Or get it all in one personal guide with Apply for Me.

Fort Worth Benefits is a free community guide, not a government agency. FWHS and the City make their own decisions — confirm openings and eligibility with them directly.