A Federal Housing Disaster Is Brewing. State and City Leaders Need to Act.
Unless leaders in our state take action, a dreadful housing catastrophe is set to thunder across New York later this year, which is all but certain to force thousands of families from their homes and destabilize the affordable housing industry.
This calamity is the expected devastation from the sweeping Republican budget making its way through Congress. It will cut billions of dollars in U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) aid and put limits on rental assistance used by one million New Yorkers. The effect of the cuts goes far beyond aging, inner-city, public housing projects (like East Harlem’s Jefferson Houses, pictured above).
Section 8 voucher cuts will waylay small landlords whose tenants can suddenly no longer pay rent, as well as undermine the finances of affordable housing deals statewide and the private management initiative by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to refurbish tens of thousands of apartments.
Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, and State lawmakers must step up to provide more housing aid. Without emergency action, New York faces an explosion in evictions and resulting homelessness.
That would be tragic in a housing market already facing a severe shortage of units for the working poor.
New York State provides minimal support for NYCHA’s operating budget. The Federal government, which funds almost 70 percent, is poised to wield the ax. The 2025-26 State budget passed by lawmakers includes $225 million for NYCHA capital improvements and $75 million for public housing authorities outside New York City. That’s a far cry from the $1 billion the New York State Assembly proposed in its one-house budget.
Mayor Adams, who lowballed NYCHA in his budget request, has not uttered a word publicly about the Federal housing cuts. Of all people, he knows what the housing cuts will mean for the struggles of average New Yorkers. His biography chronicles being raised in public housing in Brooklyn, family struggles with food insecurity, and fear of eviction.
Statewide, more than one million New Yorkers rely on Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers to stay in their homes, according to the New York Housing Conference. In New York City, 482,000 people live in HUD-assisted buildings, including public housing, project-based subsidies, and dwellings for the elderly and disabled persons.
The Republican budget places a two-year limit on vouchers for “able-bodied recipients.” In New York, the average length of time a household uses a voucher is 15 years. NYCHA residents have an average duration of more than 25 years. Under the plan, states would receive small housing block grants and then be left to weigh their options to fill the gap.
These cuts will harm public housing residents and put the affordable housing industry at risk. Consider the fact that New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development relies more on Federal funds than any other City agency – with 58 percent of its $1.2 billion budget coming from Washington to fund vouchers, housing inspections, and affordable housing construction, an Independent Budget Office analysis found. Also, mass layoffs at HUD regional offices delay paperwork for the conversion of construction loans to permanent, long-term Federal Housing Administration financing.
The cap on Section 8 vouchers could also complicate NYCHA’s efforts to bring physical improvements to public housing systems through the Preservation Trust and the Rental Assistance Demonstration-Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (RAD-PACT). These and other project-based vouchers are key to the financing of new affordable construction and preservation. The changes in vouchers may make some projects financially unstable.
Separately, landlords face being left in the lurch by the sudden end of the Emergency Housing Voucher Program. New York City has the most emergency vouchers, which began during the Covid pandemic, according to housing advocates. Vouchers are used by 16,105 New York City renters and accepted by the owners of 5,000 properties, according to an analysis by the New York Housing Conference. The Bronx accounts for nearly half of the buildings, while Brooklyn makes up one-fourth.
There is evidence that affordable housing deals around the country that rely on the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), a major grant and loan program from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, are on hold. Not surprisingly, the Trump administration wants to eliminate GRRP.
A dozen developers expecting awards under GRRP, including New York-based Related Companies and Essence Development, signed onto a recent letter to HUD Secretary Scott Turner warning their projects would halt or be badly delayed if the Federal government goes back on its commitment. Related said the projects at risk include a $140 million, 179-unit development in Poughkeepsie. It was expecting a $647,700 GRRP award.
Conservatives like to cloak their misguided disdain for helping the poor in claims that antipoverty programs are unnecessary or rife with waste. It’s a feckless excuse to implement policies that destabilize Black and brown communities and displace families.
But their attacks on housing projects have consequences outside of New York City. Steel beam factories in Arkansas and South Carolina will be impacted; fewer jobs for Pennsylvania and Midwestern concrete workers; and small-town Michigan economies that rely on residential glass and curtain wall manufacturing will take a hit.
All to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. Shameful.
David R. Jones is president and chief executive officer of the Community Service Society of New York, a nonprofit that uses research, advocacy, and direct services to champion a more equitable city and state. His bi-weekly column, “The Urban Agenda,” appears in the New York Amsterdam News, which originally published this piece on May 22nd, and which appears here with the author’s permission.
Photo by: jag9889