Upstate counties are blocking NYC’s rental voucher expansion, and no one’s stopping them

A coterie of upstate leaders are blocking low-income New York City residents from using city-funded housing vouchers to rent apartments in their counties, but so far, no one appears to be stopping them.

Executives in at least three counties issued the bans after New York City’s Department of Social Services unveiled a policy change that will pay the rent for CityFHEPS voucher-holders who find apartments outside the five boroughs. The CityFHEPS program covers the bulk of the rent for families and individuals who qualify based on their income and who have lived in shelters or, in some cases, face homelessness.

Two days after Gothamist first reported on the CityFHEPS expansion, Oneida County, home to Utica, explicitly barred landlords from accepting the subsidies — an infraction now punishable by a $2,000 penalty and a misdemeanor charge. Broome and Rockland counties issued similar prohibitions soon after.

New York City “cannot unilaterally deport its impoverished,” said Rockland County attorney Tom Humbach in a statement.

Those measures come despite a 2019 state law that prohibits so-called source of income discrimination — denying someone an apartment because of how they pay their rent. Landlords throughout the state already accept other forms of rental assistance, like the federal Section 8 program and, occasionally, another voucher paid for by New York City’s social service agency.

Source of income discrimination has a disproportionate impact on people of color, people with disabilities or families headed by single mothers, and can often serve as a proxy for other illegal forms of bias, according to policy groups like the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“I don’t know why they’re pushing away New Yorkers who clearly have the funds to pay for their housing,” said Britny McKenzie, a policy coordinator with the New York City Fair Housing Justice Center. “Literally you have counties saying ‘We don’t want to accept your source of income.’ That’s a big issue.”

The anti-discrimination law is now facing an ongoing legal challenge. A judge in Tompkins County ruled in June that the law was unconstitutional when it imposes inspection requirements, as in the case of Section 8.

New York state Attorney General Letitia James is appealing the judge’s order. A spokesperson for James declined to comment on the CityFHEPS bans.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s spokesperson Avi Small did not respond directly to questions about whether the bans violated state law or whether the state would intervene to stop counties from blocking CityFHEPS.

New York City DSS spokesperson Neha Sharma said the city is “monitoring” the mounting CityFHEPS bans. And Mayor Eric Adams said he hopes “partners across the state will greet these longtime New Yorkers with open arms and good job opportunities.”

But so far they haven’t.

Upstate barricade

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, a Republican, signed the emergency order prohibiting the vouchers and told Gothamist he did not think he was violating state law. He said he worried the subsidies would skew the local housing market.

“It’s an issue of someone — whether it’s a landlord or … hotels or the like — saying, ‘We'll displace person X because we're going to get more from person Y from New York City,’” he said.

New York City’s new policy is supposed to account for that possibility. DSS Commissioner Molly Park said the city will peg vouchers to local market rates to prevent landlords from jacking up the rents and displacing lower-paying tenants.

Still, that assurance hasn’t stopped other county executives and lawmakers from making the same argument as Picente.

In Broome County, Democratic Executive Jason Garnar signed his own emergency order on Oct. 6 that shares significant language with the Oneida County order. In a press release, announcing the order, Garnar’s office said the “fair market rate” city vouchers would outpace those available through Broome’s Department of Social Services.

Last month, Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican, issued an order banning landlords from accepting any rental subsidy paid for by another municipality without a license from the county.

Erie County, home to Buffalo, stopped short of issuing an order blocking the vouchers. Instead, the Democrat-led county Legislature approved a resolution calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to ensure the vouchers don’t exceed those available through state-level rental-assistance programs.

The resolution urged the state to “prevent New York City from offering free bonus rent or other incentives to landlords, and ensure that New York City will not be allowed to expand this program or change its program rules in a way that would disadvantage Erie County households.”

It’s unclear how many other counties outside of New York City have passed resolutions to block the CityFHEPS vouchers from being used within their borders.

The state Association of Counties, a lobbying group that counts all county governments plus the city of New York as members, hasn’t been tracking the local orders, according to Mark Lavigne, its deputy director.

But the group ripped the city’s policy in September, accusing New York City of “shifting a problem from one part of the state to another” and incorrectly asserting that the plan would benefit newly arrived migrants who do not qualify for CityFHEPS.

Giving renters more choices

Supporters of the city’s decision to expand the CityFHEPS voucher program — including renters with vouchers — say the move gives New Yorkers more housing choices amid soaring rents, an extreme shortage of low-cost housing and a record-high homeless shelter population.

The new policy also more closely aligns CityFHEPS with the federal Section 8 program, which can be used anywhere in the country. Both vouchers pay the majority of a tenant’s rent, with the recipient contributing no more than 30% of their income.

Flatbush resident Patricia Ferguson said said she and her three children were facing eviction from their apartment because the landlord wanted to increase the rent beyond what CityFHEPS will cover.

Ferguson said she was looking for a new apartment and would consider moving to Long Island to be closer to her job at a health care facility in Suffolk County — an expensive, hourslong commute by train — or to Poughkeepsie, where she has family and figures she could find a similar job.

“You can’t find anything [in New York CIty], even with the city helping,” she said. “I don’t have a problem going out of the city.”

For years, New Yorkers with other forms of housing assistance have been allowed to take subsidies outside the five boroughs. But that doesn’t mean they will.

Beatriz Rodriguez, a mother of three, said she was struggling to find a landlord willing to accept her Section 8 voucher and was denied apartments 25 times in Brooklyn, where she grew up.

She said she started looking in the Bronx and managed to find a four-bedroom apartment in Morrisania. She said she did not consider leaving the five boroughs.

“I’d rather be here where my doctors are, schools, the trains are more accommodating,” she said. “I was born and raised here. And there are more services here.”

Legal Aid housing attorney Judith Goldiner said it’s unlikely that many New York City residents would use the vouchers to go far from the five boroughs.

“The counties blocking [CityFHEPS] aren’t the places our clients typically want to go,” Goldiner said.

Still, some fair housing advocates in New York City are worried about unintended consequences following the statewide expansion — like what happens to a family evicted from an apartment upstate, or a person cut off from services and support networks.

“In theory, it’s great, people have more choices where to go,” said Manon Vergerio, the head of data and advocacy group UnlockNYC. “But the city failed to provide actually affordable housing to New Yorkers and people who were born here and grew up here.”

Vergerio and UnlockNYC have urged the city to focus more money and staff on stopping local landlords and brokers from denying apartments to people because they have housing vouchers.

“People are now getting pushed out beyond the edge of the city,” she said