Tenants living in federally subsidized housing may have trouble paying their rent and utilities if they are not receiving an adequate utility allowance. To address this problem, the National Housing Law Project has developed the utility allowance pamphlet. A utility allowance is an amount that tenants receive to cover reasonable utility bills. If the utility allowance is too low, tenants are overcharged for their rent. This pamphlet provides a basic overview of how utility allowances work and why they are important. The pamphlet also helps tenant leaders figure out whether there is a problem with utility allowances and, if so, what they can do about it. Please feel free to reproduce this pamphlet and distribute it widely.