ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams changed policies that would allow those eligible for housing vouchers to use them outside the five boroughs.
That includes Western New York.
The vouchers, issued by the NYC Human Resources Administration, are part of the city's "Family Homelessness & Eviction Prevention Supplement" (FHEPS) program. The program administers housing vouchers that range from $2,325/month for a single individual, to $3,647/month for a family of eight.
The FHEPS can provide supplemental relief for 60 months, according to the program website. The program is designed for those "who have been evicted or are facing eviction, or who lost their housing due to domestic violence, families who have lost their housing because of health or safety issues or as a result of certain court decisions."
When the policy was first changed, there was confusion about whether asylum seekers would be receiving the vouchers.
Mayor Adams did inform Governor Hochul's office about the policy change.
"This is similar to a Section 8 housing voucher issued by the federal government, where you can use it anywhere you can use it anywhere in the country, in fact," Hochul said on September 27. "So not having a geographic constraint on New Yorkers be able to get an apartment, I don't have a problem with that."
"The voucher has no direct relation with the migrants themselves," said Todaro. "Their actual services are being impaled, they don't have enough, so the homeless shelters are overburdened."
By expanding the voucher boundaries, those eligible would be able to use vouchers across the state and leave the New York City shelters, which in turn could make room for asylum seekers.
Last week, Chautauqua County Executive P.J. Wendel issued an executive order that declared a state of emergency in the county. The executive order effectively banned landlords from accepting any NYC vouchers as rent payment.
Todaro and the minority caucus want Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz to do the same.
"We clocked in the resolution, and we're calling on the county executive to actually come out and put a state of emergency," Todaro said.
The minority caucus believes, according to Todaro, that landlords in Erie Co. will begin raising rent prices in anticipation of those with vouchers arriving to the region, essentially pricing out those looking for housing locally.
"We already have a housing crisis," Todaro said. "Now that you allow these high dollar vouchers to be allowed to come in here and be utilized, you're just adding to the problem."
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz agrees, that housing inventory in the county is a problem.
"Right now we have housing issues in our community," Poloncarz said. "They could say we're gonna give you rent vouchers, but there's just not that much available in space anyway."
Poloncarz dismissed the concerns that Erie County will see an influx of would-be voucher users, simply because there's not the available housing.
"They couldn't put thousands of people in our community because there's no room for them," Poloncarz said.
The Erie County Legislature will discuss the state of emergency resolution during Thursday's regular meeting.