‘What low-income renters and homeless New Yorkers really need is Section 8 for all: housing assistance offered as an entitlement for everyone who qualifies.’
The pandemic has laid bare the economic and health-related vulnerabilities facing so many New Yorkers and highlighted the urgent need to provide everyone with access to both affordable housing and quality health care. Indeed, one of the most salient lessons of this crisis is that housing is health care. The past year has been so devastating because it exacerbated underlying inequities and exposed pernicious holes in the social safety net, including the disastrous inadequacy of our housing infrastructure.
Tens of thousands of homeless New Yorkers have been enduring a major public health crisis without the fundamental safety and security of their own homes, and countless others have fallen behind on rent and may experience homelessness once stopgap measures like the eviction moratoria end. The risk is greatest for Black and Latinx New Yorkers: Systemic racism limits their access to housing and places many in economic jeopardy. New York City has been left scrambling to help homeless people stay safe and to prevent a catastrophic surge in homelessness.
It doesn’t have to be this way. For decades, research has shown that the Federal Housing Choice Voucher program, also known as Section 8, is an effective way to reduce homelessness and help low-income people keep their homes. Individuals and families with Section 8 vouchers pay approximately 30 percent of their income toward rent, with the government paying the remainder directly to the landlord. This allows them to afford the stability of permanent housing and can offer low-income families more choice in where they live.
The program has been shown to reduce overcrowding by half, homelessness by 75 percent, and repeated moves within five years by one-third in a study comparing low-income families with and without vouchers. Vouchers also often enable Black families to move to low-poverty neighborhoods and help military veterans, people with disabilities, and seniors to escape homelessness and poverty.
However, the government has rationed this vital housing assistance by refusing to fund a sufficient number of vouchers for all who need them: Only one out of every four eligible households receives this critical rental assistance. Waiting lists for Section 8 vouchers are often years long, and sometimes closed entirely by the agencies that distribute them, so that new applications are only rarely accepted.
Rationing housing vouchers leaves local governments on the hook for costly emergency interventions like shelters, hospitals, and jails when the lowest-income people remain priced out of the stable housing they need to thrive.
Other components of the social safety net, such as SNAP, are structured as entitlements–meaning they are provided to all who are eligible and can nimbly respond to sudden economic downturns, thereby protecting people from abject poverty and hunger.
Fortunately, we are now at a crossroads: The Federal American Rescue Plan includes about 70,000 new one-time Housing Choice Vouchers, of which more than 7,700 will go to New York City tenants. While this is a promising development that will help thousands of New Yorkers, it pales in comparison to the need: There are hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who simply cannot afford the high rents in our city and are teetering on the verge of homelessness. Even prior to the pandemic, statewide, 973,000 low-income households paid more than half of their incomes for rent and more than 90,000 people were homeless on a single night.
What low-income renters and homeless New Yorkers really need is Section 8 for all: housing assistance offered as an entitlement for everyone who qualifies. President Joe Biden pledged to fight for universal rental assistance on the campaign trail, and the forthcoming infrastructure package and budget negotiation provides a perfect opportunity for him and the United States Congress to deliver on this transformative proposal.
Providing Section 8 vouchers to all eligible households would dramatically reduce homelessness and the widespread displacement and trauma that arise from evictions and economic crises. The pandemic has demonstrated with indisputable clarity that the status quo tolerance of mass homelessness and pervasive housing instability places lives at risk and must be rectified. As we move forward as a nation, we must seize this potent opportunity to finally restore the federal role in providing housing assistance, not just for some, but for all who need it.
Jacquelyn Simone is a senior policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless.
10 thoughts on “Opinion: It’s Time to Make Housing Vouchers Universal”
Please do people needs help and they take to long with the paperwork work so you lose your apartment people needs the
Application you apply an was Deny why they need to rise the rent vouchers people has bills to pay mortgage we can not live in people house 🏠 an not paying them that is wrong I been trying to get other help for a two bedroom but my Voucher can’t pay for a one bedroom
Actualy, there needs to be more fully Federaly funded public housing. Public housing (NYCHA) worked fairly well in providing safe, clean affordable housing until Federal Budget Cuts crippled it. Also, middle class people used to be eligible for public housing, and many lived there, providing a mixed income base which helped it thrive. I live in New York City Public Housing in a good solid safe building, that is not crumbling (yet) despite being underfunded and understaffed. NYCHA also used to have many more community programs for residents which enhanced NYCHA living.
Housing vouchers increase demand and prices . Vouchers place a minimum floor under private apartment prices, driving them higher than they would normaly be. Public housing takes away demand for private apartments and reduces presures on increasing rents. The real estate industry benefits from vouchers which subsides their product. They dislike public housing which cuts demand for their product. Hence their advocacy to privatize public housing.
A mix of vouchers for flexibility ,and more and better maintainted (fully funded) public housing would be great!
great observations about vouchers vs. federally funded housing development (NYCHA)
I believe robust portable vouchers that are reliable for renters and owners would go a long way in helping those in need.. the city spends so much for emergency housing. Those resources could go a long way in actually paying for stable reliable housing,
This! Project people, not property!
We need to scrap the entirely ineffective rent regulation scheme in lieu of two goals:
1) Financial empower and support those who need it
2) Protect all tenants from sporadic and unreasonable increases, a la CA or OR (e.g. 7% + CPI)
The current rent stabilization laws ensconce a lucky few with an estate for life and complete isolation from economic reality. How many stories have we heard about the rich couple paying $800/mo for a classic six while having vacation homes in the Berkshires and Miami? Or the self-serving politicians who vociferously defend the system while reaping the benefits?
Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes. Small landlords are being driven out of the city, taking huge losses on properties earned with generational sweat equity, many of them minorities whose parents or grandparents thought they were investing in the American Dream. Apparently that dream has been hijacked by the hypocritical muni-socialists who have appropriated other peoples’ private property for “THEIR affordable housing stock”.
Let’s give rent regulated units to those that need them, and make it illegal for any politician to occupy one.
I am waiting on a one bedroom apartment.I am 60 disabled single I have been waiting for over a year when will I get a apt.
I’m sure the situation varies by market, but long and/or closed waiting lists are because only a limited number of vouchers are issued. But it wouldn’t do much good to issue more, because landlords tend to be reluctant to accept them, so the tenant holding the coveted voucher still can’t find a hoo. Why? A combination of the false impression that section 8 tenants (or poor people in general) are “bad”tenants. That, and the extra hassles of additional paperwork and inspections.
I wish that they stop expecting section 8 voucher holders to have good credit if u don’t have much how the hell u suppose to have all this credit .. evictions I understand cuz its about the apartment but if u never had evictions then that should be enough.. sorry…..just saying tho I really hate that
Good luck with that one! Applying for a certificate was so easy back in the day! Now you have to dam near kill to get a voucher! I want to live where I want to live! I’m grateful I have a place but it’s time to get rid of subsidized apartments that you have to live the state sends you to live. I want my freedom to choose!!
V.M.
What good is it to give universal section 8 vouchers to everyone eligible when most landlords won’t accept them because of presumptions and stereotyping of the voucher holders and the hassle of dealing with HUD. It’s been decades since Section 8 had a major overhaul and it’s time for that to happen.
Getting slightly off topic, the House and Senate needs to pass the SSI restoration act 2021. Would greatly impact low income seniors, disabled.