Gov. Hochul says NY budget will create $50M rental aid program championed by tenant groups

New York’s state budget will include “about $50 million” to establish a new housing assistance subsidy for low-income renters after years of advocacy from tenant groups and homeless rights activists, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.

The proposed Housing Access Voucher Program, or HAVP, has received the endorsement of landlord groups, labor unions and leaders in the state Senate and Assembly, who have pursued the subsidy through the budget for the past three years. A task force on ending child poverty Hochul convened last year recommended a rental aid program. The board of policy experts, government officials and low-income New Yorkers found state-funded rental assistance could reduce child poverty by roughly 16%.

But Hochul and her aides had long resisted creating a permanent, state-funded assistance program. The governor’s budget director called the measure too expensive as recently as two weeks ago.

Though Hochul relented during budget negotiations with legislators in recent days, the $50 million included in their recent agreement is a fraction of the $250 million the program’s legislative sponsors originally sought. Based on current rent levels, it may reach only a few thousand households.

“Economic times are so hard and if people can't even live in a home they're going to be on our streets, so this is something that we're looking to initiate for the first time here,” Hochul told reporters.

The state, she added, would be “moderating the costs and keeping an eye on the program because this has potential to escalate a great deal.”

New York City and state are contending with record-high homelessness as rents soar and the number of evictions for nonpayment rises. More than 140,000 New Yorkers lacked permanent housing during the city’s most recent one-day count.

“We definitely argued for a lot more funding, but this is a foot in the door on the way to establishing a more robust Housing Access Voucher Program,” said Assembly Housing Chair Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat. “It’s more important than ever that we look after the most vulnerable so they can have safe, stable affordable housing and they can get on with their lives.”

Hochul agreed to fund the voucher program, albeit at a lower rate, amid negotiations over controversial policy priorities that many of her fellow Democrats opposed. These included creating a new charge for wearing a mask while committing a crime and changing the state’s involuntary commitment laws, both of which made it into the budget agreement.

But the budget remains a handshake deal, with legislation spelling out the specifics to come. Hochul and state legislative leaders have not yet disclosed the details of the Housing Access Voucher Program they will create in the budget, like how many vouchers it will fund and exactly who will qualify. The state’s current housing voucher program is reserved for a narrow subset of low-income families with children.

Rosenthal said she worried the state would create a pilot program that could end, leaving recipients without aid to cover their housing costs. But, she added, “it’s something rather than nothing, which is what we had.”

Advocates for low-income New Yorkers also said the modest budget allocation marks an important step toward a statewide voucher program.

“This is the first time that we have seen some type of light,” said Althea Matthews, a member of the advocacy group VOCAL-NY. “There are just too many people facing homelessness, not just in New York City, but in all of New York State.”

Matthews, 66, said she became homeless in 2019 after a fire destroyed her apartment building and spent the next three years in city-run shelters. In 2022, she secured a rental assistance voucher from the federal government that allowed her to move into a two-bedroom apartment in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx with her 3-year-old great-grandson. She said more New Yorkers deserve the same opportunity.

“There are just too many people facing homelessness, not just in New York City, but in all of New York State,” she said.

The Housing Access Voucher Program is modeled off the federal Section 8 program, for which recipients qualify based on their annual earnings. They spend no more than 30% of their income on rent, while the subsidy covers the remainder, up to a certain threshold based on household size and apartment location. But vouchers are limited: Only about 1 in 4 households eligible for the assistance nationwide actually receive it.

The Trump administration and congressional leaders have considered cutting federal housing aid programs even further, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has warned cities and states that a pandemic-era subsidy known as the Emergency Housing Voucher program will end next year because it is nearly out of cash.

The new state program could supplement New York City’s efforts to house low-income families and individuals through its own voucher initiative known as CityFHEPS, which is estimated to cost roughly $1 billion in the coming fiscal year.

Christine Quinn, president and CEO of Win, an organization that runs 16 shelters across the city, said vouchers are “the best way to get somebody out of shelter and into permanent housing in a way that they will remain permanently housed.”

Quinn said it’s critical that the state steps up with a pilot program of its own at a time when federal voucher programs are “in real danger.”

“We know that a state voucher will help reduce homelessness across the state, will put a huge dent in childhood poverty and also help us weather the storm of Donald Trump,” she said.

This story has been updated to correct the name of the Housing Access Voucher Program.