Advocates push for passage of state rental-subsidy program

A bill for the Housing Access Voucher Program, a rental subsidy, has been idling for years in the state Legislature. Still, its advocates continue to rally for the program amid the spike in homelessness.

Supporters believe HAVP could be a key tool in alleviating housing problems in Rochester and statewide. Since it was introduced in 2019, however, both governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul have pointed to funding concerns. Hochul views building more affordable housing as an answer to the housing crisis.

Hochul’s opposition to HAVP has sparked rallies both in Rochester and across the state. Funding remains the biggest barrier to HAVP’s passage, as legislators prepare to ask for $250 million in the state budget to fund the program. As of Jan. 27, the bill was with the Senate Finance Committee. Legislators are expected in Albany Tuesday. 

Endorsed by Voices of Community Activists and Leaders and the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative, HAVP is a rental voucher program that would provide rent support to lower-income households at risk of homelessness.

HAVP aims to establish a statewide rental subsidy offered to those currently facing or at risk of homelessness. To be eligible for a voucher, households must be unhoused or facing eviction, and make no more than 50 percent of the area median income—a metric determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2024, the HUD area median income in Rochester was $97,000.

Eligible households would be required to pay 30 percent of their monthly income toward rent, with the rest—up to 120 percent of the HUD-determined fair market rent—covered through the subsidy.

FMRs represent the 40th percentile of rents in a given area, and in Rochester, it was $1,307 for a two-bedroom unit in 2024. If a household received a voucher under HAVP, it would be required to pay no more than $1,212.50 on rent.

State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, sponsor of the HAVP legislation, says the program would immediately relieve households of rent poverty—where the cost of rent impedes a family from meeting other financial expenses.

“(Housing vouchers) allow us to stabilize families who might otherwise have unstable housing because of difficulties being able to pay their housing costs,” says Kavanagh. “Many people in our state pay 40 or 50 percent of their income in rent, and that usually makes it pretty difficult for families to make ends meet.”

A household is considered rent-burdened if it pays more than 30 percent of its monthly income toward rent, and severely rent-burdened if that cost exceeds 50 percent. Five-year Census estimates show that nearly 51 percent of renter households in the city of Rochester are rent-burdened.

“Incomes are not high enough for families to be at a place where they can be (stably housed) because they would have to pay so much of their income towards rent,” says Aqua Porter, executive director of RMAPI. “We’ve got to have housing that people can afford, or ways to subsidize housing so that they can afford it. And I think that’s what HAVP can help to do.”

HAVP legislation models the existing Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, with distinctions advocates claim would lower the barrier for households to get assistance. One lies in the source of funding: where Section 8 is federally funded through HUD, HAVP would be funded by the state.

“Federal funding is limited and so there are always thousands and thousands of people on the wait list for (Section 8) vouchers,” explains Porter. “The idea here is that by creating a state-level version of that as well, we could start to get at those thousands of households that we know in our community are eligible for a voucher, but there’s just not enough money for them to be able to get one right now.”

Households applying for Section 8 must also pass background checks on immigration status and criminal history—requirements that do not exist under HAVP. Advocates tout this as a key distinction in ensuring subsidies are as accessible as possible.

For Tracie Adams, a VOCAL-NY advocate who has felonies on her record, finding housing with a criminal background proves incredibly difficult.

“(An unhoused) person can come in and apply for HAVP, whereas Section 8 … it’s a whole lot of guidelines to get Section 8,” notes Adams. “One of the (first) things they ask you is, ‘Have you ever been convicted of a crime?’ With HAVP, you don’t have that.”

Prioritizing long-term housing has long been viewed by advocates as a key strategy in alleviating homelessness, which they claim HAVP can help address.

“A housing-first model does not exist in Monroe County, because as long as there are barriers with our people who are in active mental health and addiction crises, they have to go through many hoops to get housing,” says Kim Smith, city Councilmember and VOCAL-NY political director. “The investment has to be in a housing-first model, and if there are barriers in access to getting them into those apartments, that’s where HAVP comes in.”

The Community Service Society of New York estimates a 26 percent reduction in homelessness throughout the Finger Lakes region, including Rochester, with HAVP. According to senior policy analyst Samuel Stein, Monroe County would be slated to receive nearly 600 vouchers, with up to 1,500 individuals receiving assistance.

Funding concerns

Though the proposed HAVP legislation has existed since 2019, it hasn’t received funding approval in the state budget.

“If it starts at $250 million, you can expect the cost to go up year by year based on rent increases, but that’s it,” Stein says. “It costs more if you give it more money, but the only reason that a voucher program would get more expensive is that rents are going up.”

Samuel models the cost of HAVP over five years at a moderate rent growth of 3 percent annually, accounting for voucher turnovers, inflation, and administrative costs that would impact the overall cost of the program. 

That model pegs the cost of the program at just over $1 billion over five years. In 2022, Hochul said HAVP would cost the state $6 billion.

“You adjust for inflation or other rising costs, but you don’t add more money to it,” Stein adds. “When the governor says $6 billion, it comes out of nowhere in terms of a $250 million program.”

Should HAVP be enacted, the program would supplement Section 8 through state funding. That raises questions over the role state governments would play in “filling in” for their federal counterpart.

Says Shawn Burr, executive director of the Rochester Housing Authority: “My concern would be that the feds look at that and go, ‘OK, well, if the state can do it, why don’t we give them the money and they can administer the programs?’”

The housing agency would be responsible for distributing vouchers should the program be established. Still, Burr maintains the criticisms of Section 8 wouldn’t necessarily be solved through an additional program. RHA currently manages approximately 10,000 vouchers and 2,300 public and affordable housing units, with waitlists of three to four years.

While federal funding remains a hurdle, it largely stems from responding to increasing costs of rent.

“We found that our participants, when they were out searching for housing, weren’t able to find anything within the price range that we would be able to allow,” Burr explains. While rent assistance is matched to up to 110 percent of the FMR for a unit, the higher the assistance, the higher federal funding is spent.

“Right now, we’re spending 105 percent of the funding,” Shawn adds. “But we’re only utilizing 80 to 83 percent of the vouchers. If we had more money, we could utilize more vouchers and house more people.”

Hochul would like to make homes more affordable and available—whether that be through building new units, or making housing more accessible to families. In February, the governor made a stop in Rochester to propose a 75-day waiting period for institutional investors seeking to purchase one- or two-family homes. March saw Rochester receive a total of $16 million in awards for supportive housing projects, including the conversion of the former Hotel Cadillac into 42 new units.

Advocates and supporters of HAVP claim the bill would provide more immediate relief to families and households at risk of homelessness.

“It’s absolutely crucial right now because we already have a homelessness and eviction crisis right now,” says Stein. “New construction takes time, and in and of itself doesn’t necessarily serve the people who are extremely low income and need this voucher.”

Next steps

Housing advocates point to recent increases in homelessness as a driving factor behind their support for HAVP—claiming the state has the money to pass the legislation, but not the willpower to do so. VOCAL-NY has sent delegations to Albany to rally behind the bill, with organizers like Adams urging lawmakers to fund HAVP.

“Children are becoming homeless. You can’t become an astronaut, a politician, or a teacher if you don’t have proper housing,” Adams said at a state Legislature budget hearing. “They die when they don’t have (housing). … HAVP would rectify all of this.”

After Hochul reaffirmed her opposition to the bill in March, those rallies have spread throughout the state, with Rochester’s advocates urging the governor to sign the bill into law during a March 27 rally.

“HAVP is common-sense legislation. It funds housing. It allows everyone to have a roof over their head so they can focus on happiness, joy, love, all the things that dignified human beings deserve,” said Stanley Martin, city Councilmember and speaker at the rally. “In 2025, we need Gov. Hochul to stand up and fight for HAVP. We will protect our communities, make sure we are housed, make sure we are housed with dignity, and pass HAVP.”

Kavanagh claims the bill has widespread support throughout the state Legislature.

“We have nearly every Democrat in the Senate sign(ed) on as a co-sponsor of the bill. … We’ve got very broad support in the Assembly as well,” he says. “It is the case that the budget is only done when there’s a three-way agreement among the governor and the Assembly and the Senate, and that’s what we’re working toward now.”

Narm Nathan is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and a former Beacon intern. 

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