Just 19.4 percent of the 7,788 federal Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV) issued to New York City by the Biden Administration in May 2021 have been used to secure an apartment, according to city data. That’s compared to a national rate of 48.7 percent.

Seventeen months after New York City received a trove of much-needed Section 8 housing vouchers, homeless recipients are still finding it hard to actually use them as the city’s sluggish lease-up rate trails far behind the national average.

Just 19.4 percent of the 7,788 federal Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV) issued to New York City by the Biden Administration in May 2021 have been used to secure an apartment, according to city data. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided 5,738 of the new subsidies to NYCHA and another 2,050 to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), accounting for about 11 percent of the 70,000 vouchers issued nationwide as part of the administration’s American Rescue Plan stimulus package.

Before closing the application window on Sept. 30, HPD and NYCHA released an additional 1,000 vouchers to allow more households to try to secure an apartment. But in the city’s tight rental market, where voucher holders face administrative hurdles and rampant discrimination—with little enforcement—finding a unit can be nearly impossible.

All told, New York City households have used just 1,515 of the vouchers as of Oct. 3, HPD said. That’s a lease-up rate of about 17 percent when factoring in the extra 1,000 vouchers, but 19.4 percent of the actual total provided by HUD. Either way, New York City lags behind the statewide rate of 27.5 percent and the national rate of 48.7 percent, according to a database maintained by HUD.

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https://citylimits.org/2022/10/05/