S.568B (Kavanagh) / A4021A (Rosenthal)
New Destiny strongly supports the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) and urges the Legislature and Governor to establish HAVP and appropriate $250 million for the program in the FY25 budget.
Founded in 1994, New Destiny is the only organization in New York City dedicated to the long-term housing stability of survivors of domestic violence, and the largest developer of supportive housing for survivors and their families. We are also a leading advocate in the effort to obtain the resources needed to end the cycle of domestic violence and homelessness for low-income families and individuals.
Rental subsidies, such as Section 8, can be life-saving resources for survivors and for the millions of New Yorkers experiencing housing instability. Yet only 1 in 4 eligible households receive Section 8. For noncitizen New Yorkers or those in mixed-status households, where at least one member of the family is not a U.S. citizen or eligible immigrant, it can be difficult – if not impossible – to access sufficient housing support. This includes countless immigrant survivors of domestic violence, who lack equitable access to housing resources and, as a result, face great risk of eviction and tend to stay in shelter for longer.
The Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) would create a flexible, statewide Section 8-like voucher to be used by people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Addressing New York State’s affordable housing crisis will require sustained coordination and investment from all levels of government, through various policy levers, but New York State can and must take immediate action to prevent New York’s homelessness crisis from worsening by establishing and funding HAVP in this year’s budget.
Cities and towns across the state will be able to use these vouchers to help people experiencing homelessness find permanent homes or issue them to low-income New Yorkers at risk of becoming homeless. Although HAVP largely mirrors the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, it will be more inclusive as it will be available to people regardless of immigration status or criminal record. In addition to stabilizing individuals and families, HAVP will provide financial stability to building owners, ensuring a steady stream of rental income from low-income tenants. Further, a new report from Win found that, once fully implemented, HAVP could come with significant cost savings by offsetting shelter and other costs associated with eviction and homelessness.[i]
In January 2023, HUD estimated that there were 103,200 people experiencing homelessness across New York State,[ii] but with the influx of migrants and asylum seekers into New York over the past year, that number is likely closer to 150,000 today.[iii] It is not just unhoused New Yorkers who are experiencing housing instability; following the expiration of the eviction moratorium and rental arrears coverage through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, eviction filings grew nearly threefold in 2022 and today, there are close to 175,000 active eviction cases across New York State.[iv] More than half (2.9 million households) of all renter households statewide are rent-burdened and 20 percent are severely rent burdened, paying 50 percent or more of their income on rent.[v]
Research shows rental vouchers reduce homelessness and housing instability,[vi] improve outcomes for children, [vii] and promote beneficial outcomes for family well-being, including halving intimate partner violence.[viii] Federal Housing Choice Vouchers reduce the poverty rate for recipients by 43% [ix] and provide long-term benefits to households that previously experienced homelessness.[x] State and local rental assistance vouchers have a similarly stabilizing effect: in New York City, during FY23, 81% of families with children who exited shelter did so with subsides – mostly the City’s local rental assistance voucher, CityFHEPS – and those that exited with subsidies were 53 times less likely to return to shelter in the subsequent year compared families who exited without assistance.[xi]
Despite the wealth of evidence about the positive effects of rental assistance, there are not nearly enough federal and local vouchers to meet the need in New York. Only one in four eligible households receive Housing Choice Vouchers and localities outside of New York City do not have their own local voucher programs, leaving households with little to no options to help them afford rent.
Research by both the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate[xii] and Urban Policy and WIN,[xiii] the largest shelter provider for families in New York City, finds that HAVP would provide close to 13,000 households with vouchers, helping thousands of New Yorkers and their families move out of and avoid homelessness.
We urge the Legislature and Governor to establish HAVP and provide $250 million in funding for the program in the FY25 budget. We urge the Legislature to immediately pass S.568B (Kavanagh) / A4021A (Rosenthal).
Any questions can be directed to Gabriela Sandoval Requena, Director of Policy and Communications, at gsrequena@newdestinyhousing.org.
[i] Hannah Tager, Martin Gamboa, Chris Mann, “The Housing Access Voucher Program: Saving New York State $200 Million and Preventing Homelessness for Tens of Thousands of New Yorkers Every Year” Win, https://winnyc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/HAVP-Report.pdf
[ii] Tanya de Sousa, Alyssa Andrichik, Ed Prestera, Katherine Rush, Colette Tano, and Micaiah Wheeler, Abt Associates, “The 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1: Point-intime
Estimates of Homelessness,” The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2023-AHAR-Part-1.pdf
[iii] Local Law 79 of 2022: Temporary Housing Assistance Usage, Report Month: December 2023, NYC.Gov, https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/temporary_housing_report.pdf
[iv] “NYS Eviction Crisis Monitor,” Right to Counsel: NYC Coalition, https://www.righttocounselnyc.org/evictioncrisismonitor
[v] “New Yorkers in Need – The Housing Insecurity Crisis,” The Office of Budget and Policy Analysis, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, February 2024, https://www.osc.ny.gov/reports/new-yorkers-need-housing-insecurity-crisis
[vi] Ingrid Ellen Gould, “What Do We Know About Housing Choice Vouchers?,” The NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, July 2018, https://furmancenter.org/files/fact-sheets/HousingChoiceVouchers_ige.pdf
[vii] https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20150572
[viii] Douglas Rice, Major Study: Housing Vouchers Most Effective Tool to End Family Homelessness, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, July 2015,https://www.cbpp.org/blog/major-study-housing-vouchers-most-effective-tool-to-end-family-homelessness#:~:text=Major%20Study:%20Housing%20Vouchers%20Most%20Effective%20Tool,to%20report%20incidents%20of%20domestic%20violence;%20and.
[ix] Sophie Collyer, et. Housing Vouchers and Tax Credits: Pairing the Proposal to Transform Section 8 with Expansions to the EITC and the Child Tax Credit Could Cut the National Poverty Rate by Half,” Center for Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University Population Research Center, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5743308460b5e922a25a6dc7/t/5f7dd00e12dfe51e169a7e83/1602080783936/Housing-Vouchers-Proposal-Poverty-Impacts-CPSP-2020.pdf
[x] Family Options Study: 3-Year Impacts of Housing and Services Interventions for Homeless Families,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/family-options-study-full-report.pdf.
[xi] Analysis of data from Mayor’s Management Report 2023, NYC.gov. Page 242, (https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/mmr2023/2023_mmr.pdf)
[xii] Hayley Raetz, Jiaqi Dong, Matthew Murphy, Vicki Been, “A State-Level Rent Voucher Program,” The NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, https://furmancenter.org/files/publications/2_A_State-Level_Rent_Voucher_Program_Final.pdf
[xiii]Hannah Tager, Martin Gamboa, Chris Mann, “The Housing Access Voucher Program: Saving New York State $200 Million and Preventing Homelessness for Tens of Thousands of New Yorkers Every Year” https://winnyc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/HAVP-Report.pdf