A dispute between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats over an expiring emergency housing voucher program created during the COVID-19 pandemic has big implications for thousands of renters in New York City, the program's single largest recipient.
The Republican-controlled Congress declined to replenish the Emergency Housing Voucher program earlier this year after federal housing officials announced the $5 billion fund was running out of money four years earlier than expected.
Instead, members of the appropriations committee allocated about $264 million to replace some of the subsidies with another form of assistance called Tenant Protection Vouchers that can be renewed each year.
But the Trump administration tells Gothamist it will not issue the new vouchers and said it will only use the money earmarked by Congress to fund the emergency program for a few months until that money, too, is exhausted.
On Staten Island, represented by the city's lone Republican congressmember, 251 households receive the emergency vouchers, according to city data. And many are at risk of homelessness when the program runs dry.
That figure is low compared to the other boroughs, particularly the Bronx, but it means Staten Island is still home to more Emergency Housing Voucher recipients than 26 states and territories, according to a Gothamist review of federal data.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, whose district includes all of Staten Island, did not answer questions about what effect the end of the program will have on her constituents. In a written statement, her spokesperson Anthony Raisley said it was now up to the city and state to plug the gap.
"This was a temporary COVID-era program that was funded with pandemic relief funds," Raisley said.
The program was initially expected to last until 2030. Nationwide, more than 45,500 households still use the Emergency Housing Voucher program to pay rent to private landlords, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
Over 6,700 of them — about 15% of the nationwide total — live in New York City, which has used the vouchers to help the most vulnerable New Yorkers, including over a thousand domestic violence survivors.
For Staten Island native Nicole Balestire, the program’s early termination could have profound consequences.
“It saved my life,” she said. “If I didn't have this, then I honestly would be a dead woman.”
Balestire said she fled her previous apartment after being stalked by an abusive ex-husband who punched and threatened her. She has since used her emergency voucher to lease a $1,500-a-month basement apartment on a quiet Staten Island street, surrounded by neighboring homes.
Nicole Balestire at home in Staten Island.
She said she spent the last of her savings to lay black and white carpeting on the bedroom floor and purchase magenta paint for the walls, all with her landlord’s blessing. Now, Balestire said, she’s afraid she’ll have to leave a place where she finally feels safe.
“ I'm hoping that they can come up with some type of solution for us,” she said. “I can't afford to lose my apartment.”
City officials said they have found temporary alternatives for about half of the households that receive the vouchers. And City Hall spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said the administration is still working to secure additional federal funds to replace the expiring aid.
“The Mamdani administration is committed to doing everything in our power to keep [Emergency Housing Voucher] participants stably housed,” he said in a written statement.
But so far, the key source of federal aid earmarked by Congress remains out of reach.
A matter of interpretation
Congress approved the Emergency Housing Voucher program in 2021 as part of a COVID recovery package to help 70,000 low-income Americans pay their rent. At the time, federal lawmakers expected the program to last a decade. But last year, the Trump administration informed housing agencies that the funds were nearly depleted earlier than expected due to sharply rising rents — with no replacement plans.
Congress declined to replenish the program in the 2026 fiscal year budget. But New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Gothamist that lawmakers earmarked roughly $264 million for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, to continue offering assistance under a different program known as Tenant Protection Vouchers.
“We reached a bipartisan agreement,” Gillibrand told Gothamist in a written statement. “New Yorkers are already struggling with the skyrocketing costs of groceries, healthcare, and utilities. Abruptly cutting off life-saving assistance would be a catastrophic failure of government.”
Unlike the expiring program, funding for the Tenant Protection Vouchers is typically renewed on an annual basis, and housing agencies can issue them to low-income renters who experience a disruption in other federal aid, like the demolition of public housing or a private landlord who stops participating in another federal program.
The New York City Housing Authority already issues Tenant Protection Vouchers when it converts some public housing campuses to a new management and funding model called the "Preservation Trust.”
It did seem like Congress provided a long-term solution.
Budget watchdogs and housing policy groups have written to HUD Secretary Scott Turner arguing that it was “indisputable” that Congress included the additional money to replace expiring Emergency Housing Vouchers.
But the Trump administration has so far refused to issue the new vouchers. Two HUD officials, who agreed to speak before the agency issues public guidance on how the earmarked funds will be used, said the administration’s position is that Congress did not explicitly instruct HUD to issue the new vouchers and that the agency will instead use the money allocated by Congress to continue temporarily funding the emergency housing program until the money runs out later this year.
Sonya Acosta, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said the interpretation only pushes the “funding cliff” a few months into the future and contradicts Congress’ intent.
“We have tens of thousands of families who are unsure how much longer they'll receive rent assistance,” Acosta said. “Landlords are thinking of ways to protect themselves from losing that money, but it did seem like Congress provided a long-term solution.”
Mounting pressure on NYC
Pressure has been mounting on housing agencies nationwide since HUD first informed them of the program’s looming demise in March 2025.
New York City leaders said the notice sent them scrambling for alternatives to a program that provides the city with $175 million per year and is overseen by a pair of local agencies.
The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which manages emergency vouchers for about 1,700 households, plans to use $80 million in separate federal funds to create a new, temporary voucher program that will provide assistance for two years.
“But this is not a sustainable solution,” said the agency’s first deputy commissioner, Adam Phillips, at a City Council hearing on June 17. “There is no replacement for the federal government.”
These are the most vulnerable New Yorkers.
NYCHA handles the bulk of the emergency vouchers — roughly 5,000 households — and agency officials say they don’t have the money to replace all of them. At the same June 17 Council hearing, NYCHA Executive Vice President Lakesha Miller said the agency can only offer new, temporary subsidies to roughly another 1,700 households.
NYCHA is also offering some placements in public housing units managed by private companies.
“ We are turning over every rock that we can to access affordable housing,” Miller said.
But progress has been so slow. Miller told councilmembers that the agency has matched 568 households with empty apartments so far. Only 14 have actually moved in.
That leaves about 3,000 households in New York City without a concrete plan when funding expires later this year.
Their housing prospects are dim due to the city’s extreme shortage of apartments they can afford to rent. Households receiving the Emergency Housing Vouchers through NYCHA earned an average of $22,500 a year, while tenants with vouchers through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development earned just $19,500, according to city data.
“These are the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” said Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Council's housing committee.
'A real housing stability issue'
Local leaders on Staten Island say the federal, state and city officials cannot let their low-income constituents slide into homelessness, or withhold payment from landlords participating in a program that was supposed to last until 2030.
Councilmember Frank Morano, a Republican, said he hopes Congress and the Trump administration can agree on a way to transition recipients onto other assistance programs.
“ It's a real housing stability issue for Staten Island families and for property owners,” Morano said. “ If government makes a commitment to vulnerable families and to landlords who relied on that commitment, it shouldn't yank the rug out from under them overnight.”
Councilmember Kamillah Hanks, a Democrat, said she wants to use a new city-funded housing assistance program that lawmakers created as part of recent budget negotiations to replace some expiring Emergency Housing Vouchers, although the new program won’t apply to every renter in need.
“Families should not be forced to choose between paying full rent they cannot afford or entering shelter and leaving communities where they've basically rebuilt their lives,” said
NYCHA officials say the agency has sent notices to every property owner that receives payments. But Balestire's landlord, who lives upstairs, told Gothamist she did not know the Emergency Housing Voucher program was ending. After a brief phone conversation, she asked to discuss the situation by text but did not respond to follow up questions.
Balestire said she has multiple brain aneurysms and fibromyalgia that prevent her from working. She said she can’t cover the rent on her own.
“I'm screwed. Where do I go? A shelter? The streets?” she said. “If I lose this, I lose everything.”
