Section 8 refers to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's voucher program for very-low income households. There are a number of places in the city that accept these vouchers.
If you qualify for Section 8 housing then you get onto a pretty huge waiting list. When you are near the top of the list you get re-evaluated by housing people and then you get to use the list of available housing. If a Section 8 landlord accepts you, then you pay up to 30% of your income to rent and anything above that, the SFHA pays.
In 2008, there were about 12,000 public housing residents and 21,000 Section 8 participants in San Francisco.
