Despite governor Kathy Hochul’s opposition to its cost, a new housing voucher access program to aid any who would otherwise have had to rely on county-provided emergency housing made it into the 2025-26 state budget after all. The governor balked at funding the program at its recommended $250-million pricetag. What was adopted was a four-year pilot program with an initial funding of $50 million.
The voucher program will function like Section 8 housing, subsidizing the difference between what a tenant household can afford paying 30 percent of their adjusted monthly income and the rent a landlord is asking.
Ulster County housing and homelessness director Laura Nordstrom appreciates the subsidy at any amount. “At a time when HUD is reducing Section 8,” Nordstrom said, “a state-piloted subsidy is crucial.”
President Donald Trump’s budget proposes shrinking federal funding for homelessness by twelve percent and cutting rental aid from the housing voucher programs like Section 8, by about 40 percent.
Sarahana Shrestha, one of 66 co-sponsors of the bill in the state assembly, applauded the voucher program’s inclusion in the governor’s budget and drew attention to those families in Ulster County who, unable to locate affordable housing, have to live in motels, often for two years or more.
“We need to be able to move people from emergency shelters to stable homes,” said Shrestha, “and help those facing an imminent risk of homelessness to remain housed.”
A snapshot of the emergency housing landscape released by the county comptroller last month reported that housing-insecure county residents spent 129,170 nights in emergency housing in 2024, at a cost of $13.3 million to the county, an almost $10 million increase from four years earlier.
The program goes into effect next March. Until then, an estimated 600 unhoused people in Ulster County will have to persevere in any way they can.
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