NYC to replace thousands of rental vouchers after federal program expires, but at a cost

New York City’s public housing agency is stepping in to provide a new source of rental assistance for nearly 5,500 low-income households that are set to lose their current aid because the Trump administration and Congress declined to renew the program earlier this year.

But the decision comes at a cost: The New York City Housing Authority will stop issuing Section 8 vouchers to thousands of families and individuals on a lengthy waiting list in order to plug the gap for renters who rely on the expiring program, officials said.

“The abrupt conclusion of this assistance, which has been a lifeline for so many, could have a devastating effect on New York’s families without this action,” NYCHA spokesperson Michael Horgan told Gothamist in a written statement. “NYCHA is committed to keeping vulnerable residents housed.”

Nationwide, including across the New York region, housing agencies are confronting similar choices as they scramble to adapt to the upcoming expiration of the federal Emergency Housing Voucher program, five months after the Trump administration informed them of its imminent end.

“These are really difficult tradeoffs for housing authorities that are facing these choices,” said Rachel Fee, executive director for the policy group New York Housing Conference. “They’re under intense pressure because there is so much need in their communities.”

The program, created as part of the 2021 federal COVID recovery package known as the American Rescue Plan, created 70,000 new housing subsidies for homeless and other low-income Americans. New York City received 7,700 of those vouchers, about 11% of the total and far more than anywhere else in the country.

It has a lot to do with this administration’s chainsaw approach to government.

Newark Housing Authority Executive Director Leonard Spicer

The Emergency Housing Vouchers were initially funded to last until 2030, but in March, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development notified housing agencies that the program was nearly out of money and would soon come to an end. The Trump administration and Congress did not renew funding for the program as part of the sweeping budget package they approved in July.

Local housing officials across the country said they were surprised earlier this year to learn that the $5 billion fund was running out earlier than expected — with no plan to replenish it.

“It’s very frustrating, and I think it has a lot to do with this administration’s chainsaw approach to government as a whole,” said Leonard Spicer, executive director of Newark, New Jersey's housing authority.

Spicer, a former director with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Newark will provide Section 8 vouchers to the 98 families and individuals currently receiving Emergency Housing Vouchers.

“We have to figure out how to pick the pieces up, and the reality is those pieces are people — a mother and her children, a doorman, gig employees and their three kids,” Spicer said.

Federal housing officials did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has advised local agencies that they can transfer Emergency Housing Voucher recipients to the traditional Section 8 program, as New York City and Newark intend to do.

But other agencies may not have that option because they do not have access to unused Section 8 vouchers.

That includes the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which administers its own tranche of about 2,050 Emergency Housing Vouchers that are separate from NYCHA’s and total $50 million per year, department Commissioner Ahmed Tigani told councilmembers earlier this year.

You have to work three and four jobs to barely make ends meet.

Juleah Jorge, Emergency Housing Voucher recipient

Housing Preservation and Development spokesperson Matthew Rauschenbach said the agency expects to pull together different resources, like new state housing aid, to provide ongoing assistance. But unlike NYCHA, the housing department does not have access to Section 8 vouchers for a neat transition.

Rauschenbach said the federal government recently clawed back some of the agency’s reserve vouchers and he urged Congress and the Trump administration to issue more aid.

“The [Emergency Housing Vouchers] program took about two years to stand up, and it will take a considerable amount of time to address its abrupt winding down, but [Housing Preservation and Development] is committed to keeping all 2,100 of these families stably housed,” he said in a written statement.

It remains unclear what actions state governments in New York and New Jersey will take to prevent a loss of rental assistance, and a likely return to homelessness for recipients cut off from aid.

Kassie White, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said “defunding” the Emergency Housing Voucher program “will cause families who finally found stable homes to be put back into the streets,” and that her administration is evaluating the impact of the expiring funding and how it can help support cities and towns.

New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs, which administers more than 860 vouchers, did not provide a response.

Tenants who receive the vouchers say the aid has meant the difference between stable housing and homelessness, with less than 1% of apartments priced below $2,400 a month empty and available to rent, according to city statistics.

“The cost of rent is expensive all over this city,” said Juleah Jorge, who uses an Emergency Housing Voucher to pay for a one-bedroom in the Bronx’s Baychester neighborhood. “You have to work three and four jobs to barely make ends meet.”

Jorge said heart problems make that impossible for her. She said she and her 7-year-old daughter spent 10 months looking for an apartment where the landlord would accept the voucher before finally landing her current place in 2023.

She said they would likely become homeless if they lost the assistance they receive through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

“It’s empowering to have my own space and to feel safe in my own four walls,” Jorge said. “Not having a voucher is not an option.”