I passed along the question of "whether an ABLE account would be a barrier to subsidized housing" to David Bell, who is outreach director for Oregon's ABLE program, to see if he had heard anything definitive from our Regional Office.
David indicates that he has been in contact with the NW region contact at HUD. They have confirmed that funds from an ABLE account will not count against HUD services like Section 8, but that it might take a bit of time for HUD to formally update their regulations and handbooks.
Within HUD's different regions, there seems to be some conflicting information (possibly because their regs were not updated before he implementation of the Act). California (in a different region than we are) is leading the effort in getting Secretary Castro to put out an official statement at the national level confirming that ABLE accounts will not have an effect on Section 8.
In Oregon, it seems that the ABLE accounts will not impact Section 8. However, it might be a little while until the people on the ground administering the program have rulebooks and handbooks that specifically addresses ABLE accounts.