Find Housing

At the Tacoma Housing Authority, it is our duty to assist and support those most in need of housing find and secure safe, and affordable housing. Unfortunately, the need is so great in our region that our waitlist for housing is not currently open. Although we do not know when it will open next, the qualifications can be found here.

You can also sign up to receive a notification when the waitlist reopens here.

If you are looking for more general information about affordable housing options, we hope the following information will help you find and keep an affordable home in the Tacoma area.

Call for Help

Call 2-1-1. This number gets you to United Way of Pierce County. It can refer you to other places for other sorts of help including:

  • Rent and Utility Assistance
  • Counseling and Mental Health Services
  • Food and Clothing Resources
  • Shelter and Affordable Housing
  • Employment and Education Services
  • Military/Veteran Resources
  • Transportation

If you face homelessness

If you live in the Pierce County area and face homelessness you can call (253) 682-3401. This is the phone number for Access Point 4 Housing. Its staff will try to assess what you need in housing and services and then refer you to places in Pierce County that can help. If you cannot first get through to them, please be patient and keep trying. They should be worth the wait.

Other places to try for housing help

Here are some other places to try for affordable housing or rental assistance:

Legal Help

If you need a lawyer because your landlord is trying to evict you, you may be able to get a free lawyer from Tacoma Pro Bono: https://tacomaprobono.org/; (253) 572-5134 ext. 102.  

You can also contact CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education Advice and Referral). Its phone number is (888) 201-1014. CLEAR takes calls Monday to Friday from 9:15 AM to 12:15 PM. CLEAR’s services are free. You can also find a lot of good and easy-to-use self-help legal advice at Washington Legal Help: https://www.washingtonlawhelp.org

Here are some ways that legal assistance might help:

  • If a landlord has served an eviction notice or served court papers for eviction for nonpayment of rent, a lawyer can help get rental assistance to pay the rent and avoid the eviction.  A tenant may have other defenses as well, whether the eviction is for nonpayment of rent or for other reasons.  At least it is worth learning about the eviction  process and how long it will take.
  • If the tenant owes rent but the landlord owes the tenant money because the apartment or house has serious defects that the landlord has not fixed, such as no heat, no water, no hot water, no working stove or refrigerator that came with the lease.
  • If the landlord is trying to evict a tenant because the tenant complained about these defects.
  • If a landlord refused to rent to someone or is trying to evict a tenant because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, sexual preference, disability, because the tenant household has children, because of the tenant’s military status or because the tenant or her children are a victim of domestic violence.

We hope you have found value in these resources, and we apologize that THA cannot be more helpful at this time. When it comes to affordable housing in our region, the need is great, and our resources are thin. We wish you all the best in your search for housing, and we hope to be of greater assistance in the future.

Rental Assistance

THA’s Rental Assistance Program is a rental payment we make to a private landlord to assist with the cost of rent. This assistance is tied to the household and allows them to decide where they would like to live, as long as it is within our boundary and complies with program requirements.

Rental Assistance programs