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State hearing presses for statewide housing-access vouchers to prevent evictions and homelessness
Summary
Advocates, researchers and city officials told state senators a New York-funded Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) could stabilize thousands of households, but implementation design, long-term funding and landlord participation must be addressed.
State senators and housing experts on both sides of the aisle pressed for a New York‑funded voucher program to reduce evictions and homelessness at a joint public hearing focused on rental assistance.
Senator Brian Kavanagh, chairing the joint hearing, opened by naming the housing access voucher program as one of three priority topics lawmakers planned to scrutinize. “So today, we are focusing on the critical need for, increased availability of rental assistance in New York state. We’re gonna particularly focus on 3 programs that are intended to provide that. 1 is, the proposed housing access voucher program,” he said.
Why it matters: Witnesses said vouchers modeled on successful state programs elsewhere could prevent homelessness, reduce child poverty and keep people in their homes while the larger task of producing more housing continues. Ellen Davidson of the Legal Aid Society summarized the case for a statewide voucher fund that could be used both to prevent evictions and to place people in permanent housing: “The housing access…
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