A coterie of upstate leaders are blocking low-income New York City residents from using city-funded housing vouchers to rent apartments in their counties, but so far, no one appears to be stopping them.
Executives in at least three counties issued the bans after New York City’s Department of Social Services unveiled a policy change that will pay the rent for CityFHEPS voucher-holders who find apartments outside the five boroughs. The CityFHEPS program covers the bulk of the rent for families and individuals who qualify based on their income and who have lived in shelters or, in some cases, face homelessness.
Two days after Gothamist first reported on the CityFHEPS expansion, Oneida County, home to Utica, explicitly barred landlords from accepting the subsidies — an infraction now punishable by a $2,000 penalty and a misdemeanor charge. Broome and Rockland counties issued similar prohibitions soon after.
New York City “cannot unilaterally deport its impoverished,” said Rockland County attorney Tom Humbach in a statement.
Those measures come despite a 2019 state law that prohibits so-called source of income discrimination — denying someone an apartment because of how they pay their rent. Landlords throughout the state already accept other forms of rental assistance, like the federal Section 8 program and, occasionally, another voucher paid for by New York City’s social service agency.
Source of income discrimination has a disproportionate impact on people of color, people with disabilities or families headed by single mothers, and can often serve as a proxy for other illegal forms of bias, according to policy groups like the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“I don’t know why they’re pushing away New Yorkers who clearly have the funds to pay for their housing,” said Britny McKenzie, a policy coordinator with the New York City Fair Housing Justice Center. “Literally you have counties saying ‘We don’t want to accept your source of income.’…
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