Section 8 utility allowance in Skokie: the schedule in force, and what it does to the rent a voucher can cover

A Housing Choice Voucher is never measured against the rent alone. The housing authority adds a fixed utility allowance for every utility you pay yourself, and that gross rent — rent plus allowance — is what gets compared with the payment standard. Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) publishes the schedule; this page carries it in full, by unit type, fuel and bedroom count, and runs the arithmetic on a 2-bedroom apartment.

What this page is: the housing authority's own utility allowance schedule, effective February 1, 2026, and the federal rules that say how it is used, each linked to its source. It is not a determination of anyone's rent share — that is the housing authority's calculation from your file — and the dollar figures for HUD's fair market rents and the payment standards live on the Section 8 / FMR page. When it matters, read the linked source or ask your caseworker.

What a utility allowance is — and why it is subtracted from the rent you can afford

Under the voucher rules, gross rent is "the sum of the rent to owner plus any utility allowance" (24 CFR 982.4). The housing authority pays the owner the lower of (payment standard − your total tenant payment) or (gross rent − your total tenant payment) (982.505(b)). So every dollar of allowance is a dollar of payment standard that is not available for the rent itself: a $1,870 payment standard covers a $1,870 rent only when the owner pays every utility.

The allowance is not your bill. Each housing authority "must maintain a utility allowance schedule for all tenant-paid utilities (except telephone), for cost of tenant-supplied refrigerators and ranges, and for other tenant-paid housing services" (982.517(a)(1)), and the figures must be "based on the typical cost of utilities and services paid by energy-conservative households that occupy housing of similar size and type in the same locality" (982.517(b)(2)(i)). Three consequences follow from the text:

• Which column applies is the smaller of two sizes. The authority "must use the appropriate utility allowance for the lesser of the size of dwelling unit actually leased by the family or the family unit size as determined under the PHA subsidy standards" (982.517(d)). A two-bedroom voucher in a three-bedroom unit gets the two-bedroom allowance — unless the larger unit was approved as a reasonable accommodation, in which case the unit's own size counts.
• A higher allowance is a reasonable accommodation. On request from a household that includes a person with disabilities, the authority "must approve a utility allowance which is higher than the applicable amount on the utility allowance schedule if a higher utility allowance is needed as a reasonable accommodation" (982.517(e)) — medical equipment that runs on electricity is the textbook case.
• Cable, internet and phone are never in it. "The PHA may not provide any allowance for non-essential utility costs, such as costs of cable or satellite television" (982.517(b)(1)(iv)); telephone is excluded by (a)(1). An owner's flat utility fee can stand in for the allowance only if it is no higher than the schedule figure for what it covers (982.517(b)(2)(iii)).

The schedule is reviewed every year and must be revised for any utility whose rate has moved 10% or more since the last revision (982.517(c)(1)) — which is why the effective date on the tables matters, and why we show it.

Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC)'s schedule, effective February 1, 2026

Monthly dollar allowances, one table per unit type, 0 BR to 5 BR (6- and 7-bedroom columns are on the PDF). Find your building type, then add one line for each utility you pay under the lease — one heating line, one cooking line, one water-heating line, plus the flat items. The document is linked from HACC's resources page.

Apartments

Semi-Detached / Row House / Townhouse

Detached Single Family

Source: HACC — Utility Allowance Schedule, effective February 1, 2026 (PDF), on HACC "Allowances for Tenant Furnished Utilities and Other Services". The figures were read by software from the PDF's own text, not typed by hand; check the PDF itself before relying on one. "—" rows are where the schedule itself gives no allowance.

The arithmetic, with one worked example

Take a 2-bedroom apartment (Apartments table), where the tenant holds the gas and electric accounts (gas heat, gas stove, gas water heater, the apartment's own electricity, and the two fixed account charges) and the owner keeps water, sewer and trash — the usual Skokie apartment arrangement. The allowance is the sum of the lines the tenant pays:

The total tenant payment for a household with an adjusted income of $2,000 a month is $600 (30%, 24 CFR 5.628(a); the Section 8 / FMR page explains the three-way test). Against the payment standard for 2 bedrooms, ZIP by ZIP:

ZIP 60076 — payment standard $1,870

• Rent to owner $1,754 is the break-even: gross rent $1,754 + $116 = $1,870, exactly the standard. Above it, every extra dollar is the household's.
• Rent to owner $1,654 (gross $1,770, under the standard): the voucher pays $1,170; the household pays the owner $484 and its own utility bills — $600 in total if the bills match the allowance.
• Rent to owner $1,904 (gross $2,020, $150 over): the voucher stops at $1,270; the household pays the owner $634 plus the utilities, $750 in all — 37.5% of adjusted income. Still under the 40% ceiling that applies when a lease is first approved (982.508), which for this household caps the rent to owner at $1,954 with these utilities tenant-paid.
• Utility reimbursement. A household with an adjusted income of $300 (total tenant payment $90) in the $1,654 unit: the voucher is worth $1,680, more than the rent. The authority pays the owner the full $1,654 and the remaining $26 goes "either to the family or directly to the utility supplier" (982.514(b)) — the allowance is the only reason that payment exists.

ZIP 60077 — payment standard $1,780

• Rent to owner $1,664 is the break-even: gross rent $1,664 + $116 = $1,780, exactly the standard. Above it, every extra dollar is the household's.
• Rent to owner $1,564 (gross $1,680, under the standard): the voucher pays $1,080; the household pays the owner $484 and its own utility bills — $600 in total if the bills match the allowance.
• Rent to owner $1,814 (gross $1,930, $150 over): the voucher stops at $1,180; the household pays the owner $634 plus the utilities, $750 in all — 37.5% of adjusted income. Still under the 40% ceiling that applies when a lease is first approved (982.508), which for this household caps the rent to owner at $1,864 with these utilities tenant-paid.
• Utility reimbursement. A household with an adjusted income of $300 (total tenant payment $90) in the $1,564 unit: the voucher is worth $1,590, more than the rent. The authority pays the owner the full $1,564 and the remaining $26 goes "either to the family or directly to the utility supplier" (982.514(b)) — the allowance is the only reason that payment exists.

Illustrative incomes; the payment standard is the housing authority's published one, from the Section 8 / FMR page. Whole-dollar arithmetic. The housing authority's minimum rent, HUD's income deductions and any reasonable-accommodation allowance change real cases; this is the mechanism, not a determination.

Who pays which utility is not the landlord's free choice

The lines you add up are decided by the lease — and the lease is constrained by state law. In Illinois a landlord who agrees to pay a utility must keep it on, and a Cook County landlord who shifts a shared bill onto one unit answers to the RTLO — the utilities page has those rules with their sources. A landlord who refuses the voucher because of the inspection or the paperwork is on the Section 8 discrimination page; help with a utility arrear or a deposit is on the rental-assistance page. What the unit itself costs in each Skokie ZIP (60077, 60076) is the number the payment standard has to stretch across.

Source & caveats

• Schedule: HACC — Utility Allowance Schedule, effective February 1, 2026 (PDF), effective February 1, 2026, linked from HACC's resources page. Rules: 24 CFR 982.4, 982.505, 982.508, 982.514 and 982.517, read from the eCFR as in force in August 2026 and linked to Cornell's LII copy.
• One transcription error is one wrong dollar figure on your voucher math — check the PDF for the line that matters to you.
• The allowance is an estimate of a typical energy-conservative household's cost, not a promise about your bill. A drafty unit or an old furnace costs more than the schedule says, and nothing in the rules makes up the difference.
• Housing authorities revise schedules yearly. The effective date above is the one we last verified; if the linked page shows a newer document, it governs.

Page last updated September 22, 2026 · rent index data through August 2026.