President Donald Trump proposed cutting funding that fuels housing discrimination watchdogs. If money to fund those organizations is not appropriated by Congress, CNY Fair Housing could lose 70% of its funding. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

New York state officials will spend the majority of the next year hashing out the details of a $50 million housing voucher program included in the state’s 2026 budget. 

The program is a four-year pilot program based on the Housing Access Voucher Program bill that has been in the State Legislature since 2020. 

The pilot would help subsidize rent for thousands of tenants across the state who are either at risk of eviction or homeless, leaving individuals to pay up to 30% of their income on rent. The voucher would cover the rest. The program is set to sunset in March 2030. 

It is now up to the state’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal and municipal officials to coordinate on how the program will be rolled out and how the funding will be distributed across New York. 

The program is set to start in March 2026, according to Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, a New York City Democrat who chairs the State Assembly’s Committee on Housing.

Rosenthal and other housing advocates say the passage of the program is especially important at a time when cities across the state, including Syracuse, are experiencing a shortage of safe and affordable housing. 

In Syracuse, the median rent for an apartment has risen by more than 17% in each of the past two years, according to studies performed by rental website Zumper.

That scarcity of affordable housing, combined with a soaring population of people without a stable home and the potential for a looming loss of federal aid to popular rental assistance programs, reinforce the importance of programs like HAVP, Rosenthal said.

“There are people sleeping on the street, and I feel like as a state, we have a responsibility to them as human beings,” Rosenthal said. 

Earlier this month, the White House released its budget proposal, advocating for billions in cuts to federal rental aid in programs like Section 8. Congress will vote on the budget later this summer. 

The cuts could affect at least 3,500 households in Syracuse who rely on Section 8 vouchers and thousands more across New York. Another 47 households in the city will also lose their vouchers, as White House officials warned public housing authorities earlier this spring that a pandemic-era program — the Emergency Housing Voucher initiative — is set to end this year. 

Read more the proposed cuts to federal rental aid and the state proposals to replace it:

“Clearly, HAVP cannot make up for the future loss of [Section 8] vouchers, but we can still help a lot of people,” Rosenthal said. 

Vouchers from the state program can be used on properties where the rent is up between 90% to 120% of a city’s fair market rent. In Syracuse, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,321. Priority will be given to applicants without a home, Rosenthal said. Allocation of vouchers for municipalities will be proportional to the number of households that spend half or more of their earnings on rent. 

A 2024 report from the Office of the State Comptroller found that 20% of New Yorkers spend more than 50% of their money on rent.

Rosenthal and Sen. Brian Kavanagh, who chairs the State Senate’s Committee on Housing, had previously asked for $250 million to fund the program. Despite not getting the full amount, Rosenthal said she expects Albany lawmakers to fight for more funding in subsequent years. 

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“We’re going to fight for it,” Rosenthal said. “We were able to extract $50 million but that’s just in the first year, so we can use that to start up. We will be fighting for more money every year.”

As the state looks to implement the pilot, the ability to assist households with vouchers could land with public housing authorities like the Syracuse Housing Authority, according to Rosenthal and Kavanagh. Kavanagh told Central Current earlier this month that the move would make sense as public housing authorities disburse Section 8 aid. HAVP is modeled after Section 8.

The entities implementing the program will also draft a public report for state officials. The report will outline the funding allocated for each locality, the number of applicants, participants, and households placed on a waitlist,  Rosenthal said. 

“That will help us when it comes to funding in the future, and if we need to make tweaks to the program,” Rosenthal said. “We wanted robust accounting for this program.”

State Sen. Rachel May, a Democrat who represents Syracuse, called the inclusion of the program in the state’s budget “a real win” for the state. 

“Especially at a time when federal funds for rental assistance are under threat, we in New York should do everything we can to ensure that people stay in their homes,” May told Central Current in an email. “Every eviction we prevent through HAVP is a win for families, public safety, and our communities.”

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Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...