With the release of their one-house budget bills this month, the State Legislature sent a clear signal: include $250 million for the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) in the final state budget. That’s not symbolism—it’s recognition that last year’s $50 million pilot, while historic, is nowhere near enough to meet the scale of housing insecurity facing New Yorkers today.
The case for full funding is overwhelming. HAVP is simple, targeted, and proven in concept: like federal Section 8, vouchers cap a household’s rent burden at roughly 30 percent of income and can be used to prevent eviction or speed exits from shelter—precisely the interventions New York needs most. The program first launched last year; lawmakers who championed it now urge scaling to $250 million so it can reach far more households statewide.
Consider the stakes. In 2025, more than eight percent of Bronx households were threatened with eviction filings. And this is not just a New York City story: in 27 counties outside the city, eviction filing rates in 2025 surpassed 2019 levels. These are not abstract metrics—they are warnings that thousands of families are one court date away from displacement and all the economic and educational harm that follows.
Public support for an expansion is not merely broad—it’s overwhelming. A Community Service Society of New York policy brief released last month found 91 percent of respondents across regions, incomes, races, and political affiliations support expanding HAVP and making it permanent.
Meanwhile, New York’s shelter system and statewide homelessness indicators remain under acute stress. New York City recorded roughly 90,000 people in its main shelter system on a typical night in May 2025. Statewide, HUD’s 2024 point-in-time data showed New York with 158,019 people experiencing homelessness, almost one in five of the national total—second only to California. Those figures reflect real families, real children, and real costs—moral and fiscal—when prevention fails.
Full funding for HAVP is also fiscally smart. While rental assistance costs money, so do shelters, eviction courts, emergency rooms, and jails, all of which get used more when tenants can’t afford to stay in their homes. We should be comfortable budgeting for outcomes we want, like housing stability, especially when they save on the fiscal costs and human toll of eviction and homelessness.
And the timing could not be more urgent. New York is staring down significant federal headwinds: proposed HUD cuts and policy changes would slash rental assistance and impose time limits, shifting costs to states and localities and putting tens of thousands of New York households at risk. Under the Trump Administration HUD’s discretionary budget is being shredded – by roughly 44–51 percent — compared to the prior year with severe consequences for Section 8, public housing and homelessness programs. New York cannot wish away Washington’s retrenchment; it must build state-level tools to keep families stably housed. HAVP is exactly that tool.
Governor Hochul deserves credit for backing HAVP last year at $50 million, acknowledging the need for a state voucher. But the pilot was always a “foot in the door,” not the destination. The Assembly’s one-house budget now explicitly proposes an additional $200 million for HAVP—bringing the total to $250 million; the Senate echoes that commitment.
Skeptics will ask: can we afford it? Look at the alternatives. Eviction spikes already stretch the courts; the state’s own dashboard shows filings rising across multiple counties since 2019. Each avoidable eviction ripples through school districts, Medicaid spending, and municipal budgets. Preventing the loss of a home is invariably preferable to repairing the damage. Another plus is that HAVP’s design—modeled on Section 8 but more flexible—helps close the affordability gap for those shut out of federal programs, including some immigrants and people with past convictions, and can be deployed quickly where need is greatest.
There is also a pragmatic, statewide lens here. HAVP is not a “New York City program.” CSS research shows eviction pressure and homelessness extending well beyond the five boroughs, with several upstate counties exceeding city borough filing rates in 2025. Local leaders from Buffalo to the Capital Region need tools their communities can actually use; HAVP vouchers are portable, prevention-focused, and adaptable to local markets.
Here’s the bottom line: HAVP is that rare example of common ground where tenant advocates, many landlords, nonprofit providers, and business leaders find alignment: stable homes reduce shelter costs, reduce turnover, and make neighborhoods safer and more resilient. That’s why we’ve seen sustained, multi-year advocacy to reach this point—and why both chambers have now put $250 million on the table.
The Governor should join Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Carl Heastie and lock in the State Legislature’s full $250 million in the final FY27 state budget. Doing so will prevent evictions, reduce homelessness, and demonstrate that New York still knows how to solve big problems with practical, evidence-based policy—even when Washington turns away.
David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.