Frequently Asked

Questions (FAQ)

Positive Rent Reporting

and HUD-Assisted

Housing

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | Office of Policy Development and Research

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Positive Rent Reporting and HUD-Assisted Housing

What is positive rent reporting?

Positive rent reporting is the process of reporting a tenant’s on-time rent payments to at least

one of the three major consumer credit bureaus for inclusion in their consumer credit report.1

Positive rent reporting is one strategy to establish credit history for a resident, and it can help

build a resident’s credit.

Can HUD-assisted owners participate in positive rent reporting programs?

Yes. HUD-assisted property owners – including PHAs, landlords that participate in the Housing

Choice Voucher program, owners of rental properties with project-based rental assistance

(PBRA), and owners of properties that received or are receiving other types of HUD assistance

to support affordable units (e.g., Section 202 or 811) – may share positive rent payment data on

HUD-assisted tenants with rent reporting agencies or credit bureaus, provided that: (1) those

rent payment data are not collected by the owner to determine eligibility for—or level of

benefit for—the HUD program; and (2) disclosure of those data does not violate any federal,

state, or local privacy laws or contract terms between the owner and HUD or the owner and

the assisted tenant.

The federal Privacy Act of 1974 (“Privacy Act,” 5 USC 522a) does not apply to circumstances in

which private owners or PHAs share rent payment data with third parties, including credit

bureaus or rent reporting companies, as the Privacy Act only applies to sharing of “records” (or

data) collected for and maintained by federal agencies, such as HUD. However, Under Section

904 of the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 (“McKinney-Vento Act,” 42 USC

3544), PHAs and owners may not disclose any information (including name, address, and Social

Security number) that is collected for the purpose of verifying income and eligibility for HUD

programs in any way that is inconsistent with this purpose. If otherwise legally permitted, PHAs

and owners may share positive rent payment data and a tenant’s personally identifiable

information required for reporting when these data are collected for the purpose of

1 This FAQ discusses rent reporting services and programs in which only positive, on-time rental payments are

shared with credit bureaus. However, not all rent reporting services and programs are “positive-only,” and some

use “full-file” reporting in which landlords share all payment history with credit bureaus, including negative

information, such as missed payments. An important benefit of positive-only reporting is that it creates a low risk

for negative impact on residents and their credit scores. Until further research is available on the benefits and risks

of full-file reporting, HUD recommends that housing providers use positive-only rent reporting services. participating in a positive rent reporting program or were collected for rent collection or other

purposes unrelated to income verification and with the tenant’s consent.2 HUD recommends

that PHAs and owners consult with an attorney to determine if disclosure of any personally

identifiable information would violate federal, state, or local laws or contract terms.

What is HUD doing on positive rent reporting?

In October 2019, HUD published findings of a simulation of “full-file” rent reporting among

public housing residents, which showed that reporting rent payments to credit agencies might

help a substantial proportion of households to establish or slightly improve a credit score. 3

In June 2022, HUD published an Edge post that presented interview findings on the

implementation of California’s Senate Bill 1157 (SB 1157), which requires private landlords with

15 or more subsidized housing units to offer their tenants the opportunity to have their rent

payments reported to major credit bureaus. The findings include multiple facets of program

set-up and designed and offered some recommendations for future programs like SB 1157.

Because of the encouraging findings of the simulation and other research (discussed below),

HUD has allowed positive rental history to be included as an element of the Federal Housing

Administration’s (FHA) Technology Open to Approved Lenders (TOTAL) Scorecard since October

30, 2022, which is used to help underwrite FHA-insured mortgages and not reported to the

consumer credit bureaus.4 Recent analysis by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research

(PD&R) found that, as of August 31, 2024, over 6,000 endorsements that otherwise would have

required manual underwriting were accepted through TOTAL because of this policy change. On

average, these borrowers were more likely to be first-time homebuyers, have less wealth, and

be Black or female. Although the available time for performance observation is limited, those

borrowers who benefited from the policy change, on average, have lower 60-day and 90-day

delinquency rates.5

HUD is also studying the impact of positive rent reporting on credit scores of families living in

public housing at five public housing authorities (PHAs) through the Moving to Work (MTW)

2 This memo does not cover the issue of tenant consent for rent reporting or whether consent is provided through an opt-in or opt-out model, both of which are available from rent reporting agencies. HUD recommends that housing providers obtain tenant consent for rent reporting using either an opt-in or opt-out model.

3 See “Potential Impacts of Credit Reporting Public Housing Rental Payment Data” (HUD PD&R report, October

2019), available at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Potential-Impacts-of-Credit-

Reporting.pdf.

4 Positive rental history is applied to a borrower’s TOTAL when borrowers demonstrate on-time rent payments of at least $300 per month for the previous 12 months.

5 See “Updated Analysis on Positive Rental History” (HUD PD&R Edge article, November 12, 2024), available at

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-trending-111224.html.

Asset Building Cohort 6 . The MTW expansion, authorized by Congress in 2016, enabled HUD to

select a cohort of new MTW expansion agencies to participate in studies of asset building and

several agencies chose to do so by participating in the rent reporting study. The study currently

has more than 200 households enrolled. The final report is due in late 2027.

What does the research say about the benefits of positive rent reporting programs?

Research over the past decade indicates that positive-only rent reporting results in an increase

in credit score for most renters, and renters with the lowest baseline credit scores before

positive rent reporting experience the largest increases both in the immediate and over the

long-term. Across various pilots and other studies, 70 to 80% of participants 7 experienced

increases in their credit scores, but the size of score increases varied depending on their

baseline score tier. In all the studies reviewed, renters with prime scores (661-780) at baseline

increased the least after enrolling in positive rent reporting and renters with subprime scores at

baseline (300-600) increased their scores the most.8

It is important to note that score tiers are often the determining factor for loan approval and

interest rates, not the credit score itself. Some research suggests that increases in credit scores

due to positive rent reporting may not have a practical effect for most renters because the

6 HUD announced selection of PHAs for the MTW Expansion Asset Building Cohort in September of 2022. Of the 17

PHAs in the cohort, five chose to enroll public housing residents into a random assignment study of an opt-in rent

reporting program. These five include the Housing Authority of the City of Bristol (CT023), Concord Housing and

Redevelopment (NH005), Housing Authority of Lakeland (FL011), Springfield Housing Authority (IL004), and Twin

Falls Housing Authority (ID001). One PHA, the Bangor Housing Authority (ME009), chose to implement an opt-out

rent reporting program which is not part of the random assignment study. You can learn more about the cohort

here.

7 See, e.g., “Credit for Renting: The Impact of Positive Rent Reporting on Subsidized Housing Residents” (Experian

Rent Bureau Report, 2014), available at https://assetfunders.org/wp-

content/uploads/CreditRenting_2014_Partner.pdf (finding that 75% of participants experienced an increase in

credit score, with the majority experiencing an increase of 11 points or more); “The Power of Rent Reporting Pilot”

(Credit Builders Alliance and Citi Foundation report, 2015), available at https://www.creditbuildersalliance.org/wp-

content/uploads/2019/06/CBA-Power-of-Rent-Reporting-Pilot-White-Paper.pdf (finding that 79% of participants

experienced an increase in credit score, with an average increase of 23 points); “Rent Reporting by the GSEs

Promised Greater Credit Access. We Need More Transparency to Know Whether It Succeeded” (Urban Institute

blog post, June 13, 2024), available at https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/rent-reporting-gses-promised-greater-

credit-access-we-need-more-transparency-know (reporting that, in most recent Freddie Mac pilot, 70% of

participating renters experienced a credit score improvement).

8 See, e.g., “Including On-Time Rental Payment History in Credit Scoring Could Help Narrow the Black-White

Homeownership Gap” (Urban Institute blog post, November 29, 2022), available at https://www.urban.org/urban-

wire/including-time-rental-payment-history-credit-scoring-could-help-narrow-black-white; “TransUnion Analysis

Finds Reporting of Rental Payments Could Benefit Renters in Just One Month” (TransUnion press release, June 19,

2024), available at https://newsroom.transunion.com/transunion-analysis-finds-reporting-of-rental-payments-

could-benefit-renters-in-just-one-month/.

score increases will not be large enough to move them into a lower-risk/higher-score tier.9

However, research has consistently shown that for renters who are “unscoreable,” meaning

their credit history is too thin to receive a credit score, positive rent reporting not only results in

scoreable credit files, but also typically results in moving renters to prime (661-850) or

nonprime (601-660) score tiers.10

Research suggests that rent reporting may also provide benefits to housing providers in the

form of more frequent on-time rent payments. One pilot found that residents who were

enrolled in rent reporting in combination with financial coaching decreased their late payment

rates by 26% to 50%.11 In a TransUnion renter survey, 73% of respondents said they would be

inclined to pay their rent on time if their payments were reported.12 More research is needed,

but early evidence suggests that rent reporting may incentivize renters to make timely rent

payments.

What resources exist to learn more about rent reporting?

In addition to HUD’s MTW pilot mentioned above, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are currently

running positive rent reporting pilots for their multifamily borrowers and offer resources on

their websites, including providers that offer positive rent reporting services at the property

level and directly to renters. Credit Builders Alliance, a national nonprofit, operates the Rent

Reporting Center that offers information and resources to housing providers and renters on

rent reporting processes.

9 See “Even the Catch 22s Come with Catch 22s: Potential Harms and Drawbacks of Rent Reporting (National

Consumer Law Center report, October 2022), available at https://www.nclc.org/wp-

content/uploads/2022/10/IB_Catch_22_Rent.pdf.

10 See, e.g., “Credit for Renting: The Impact of Positive Rent Reporting on Subsidized Housing Residents” (Experian

Rent Bureau Report, 2014), available at https://assetfunders.org/wp-

content/uploads/CreditRenting_2014_Partner.pdf; “Alternative Data Such as Rent Payment Reporting Bridges the Gap for Unscoreable Consumers and Increases Financial Inclusion Opportunities” (TransUnion press release, July

15, 2021), available at https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/07/15/2263501/0/en/Alternative-

Data-Such-as-Rent-Payment-Reporting-Bridges-the-Gap-for-Unscorable-Consumers-and-Increases-Financial-

Inclusion-Opportunities.html.

11 See “The Power of Rent Reporting Pilot” (Credit Builders Alliance and Citi Foundation report, 2015), available at

https://www.creditbuildersalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/CBA-Power-of-Rent-Reporting-Pilot-White-

Paper.pdf.

12 See “Rent Reporting Will Motivate Seven in 10 Renters to Make More On-Time Payments” (TransUnion press

release, June 26, 2019, available at https://newsroom.transunion.com/rent-reporting-will-motivate-seven-in-10-

renters-to-make-more-on-time-payments/.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Policy Development and Research

Washington, DC 20410-6000

January 2025

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