Between 1994 and 1998, MTO offered housing vouchers to families with low incomes who lived in public housing or private assisted housing projects in high-poverty neighborhoods and who had at least one child younger than 18. Private assisted housing projects are rental housing built by private owners through federal programs that required them to price some units to be affordable to people with low incomes. The vouchers subsidized the cost of renting private housing in low-poverty neighborhoods.

The Chicago Housing Authority Corporation Inc. offered families a Section 8 housing voucher, which they could use to subsidize rent for housing purchased in the private market. The voucher value was equal to the difference between either the fair market rent amount or the selected unit's rent (whichever was lower) and 30 percent of the family's adjusted income.