At a time when housing subsidy programs are changing, the U.S. Census Bureau must ensure that new words and concepts do not hinder its ability to accurately identify and describe low-income housing program participation for its customer, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As directed by HUD, the Statistical Research Division (SRD) conducted cognitive research on proposed revisions of the housing subsidy question series in the American Housing Survey (AHS) under the Census Bureau’s generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). Qualitative research techniques included an expert appraisal of the survey questions and cognitive interviews with housing program participants.