NYCHA Has Placed 14 Families. Nearly 5,100 Are Still Waiting.

The number that stopped the room was 14.

Council Member Chris Banks chairs the City Council Committee on Public Housing. He represents District 42 in East New York. For more than an hour at today’s oversight hearing at 250 Broadway, he pressed NYCHA and HPD officials on their plan to house the thousands of families about to lose their Emergency Housing Vouchers. The federal government cut the program four years early. The city has known since March 2025.

Banks asked how many families had actually been moved into alternative housing.

NYCHA said 14.

The audience gasped. Banks said: “14 is astounding. I just want to write this so I can understand.” At another point during the hearing, as agency officials continued to answer questions, one audience member said aloud: “They’re lying.”

The Numbers

What the EHV Program Is

Congress created the Emergency Housing Voucher program in 2021 through the American Rescue Plan. It provides rental assistance to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, and families with children. New York City received nearly 8,000 vouchers. NYCHA runs roughly 5,100 of them. HPD administers roughly 2,000 more.

In March 2025, HUD said the program would run out of federal funding by the end of 2026, four years ahead of its original 2030 end date. Every family holding a voucher started counting down.

What NYCHA Admitted

NYCHA’s Lakeisha Miller, Executive Vice President of Lease Housing, told the committee the agency was working to find housing options for every household. She said 67% of EHV households had completed a public housing application. Of those, roughly 1,000 were out of compliance with program requirements. She said 568 households had been matched to available units. Then she said 14 had moved.

Banks pressed on the math. NYCHA does not have 5,100 units available. It has 700. To house everyone, NYCHA acknowledged it needs 3,500 additional move-in ready units. Those units do not exist in its portfolio today.

When Banks asked how long the transition would take, NYCHA said they were acting with urgency. Banks asked again. NYCHA said the process had been underway roughly a week.

This Is Not a Lottery

A NYCHA official compared the housing transition to a lottery. Banks corrected him on the record.

No Commitment on Evictions

Banks asked NYCHA directly: will you commit to not evicting any EHV tenants when the program ends?

NYCHA said no, without using that word. A NYCHA official identified in the hearing only as Brian explained that EHV holders live in private apartments with private landlords. When the subsidy stops, the relationship is between the tenant and the landlord. NYCHA said it would not be responsible for what happens next.

Two Agencies. Two Different Outcomes.

HPD told a different story. All 2,000 of its EHV households received applications to move to a new program called Home TBRA. About 80% returned their applications. Those families do not have to move. They stay in their current apartments with a different voucher.

Princess Thomas, a domestic violence survivor with a NYCHA voucher, called out the difference directly in her testimony.

HPD First Deputy Commissioner Adam Phillips confirmed it: “For the HPD voucher holders, the transition from EHV to Home TBRA, no households are moving. It’s just a different voucher program. Folks are not moving into other units, they’re staying in their current units.”

The People in the Room

Stephanie Mansfield testified first. She is a single mother of three neurodivergent children. She is a domestic violence survivor and a strangulation survivor. She navigates daily life with a traumatic brain injury. It took her ten years to be safely rehoused. The EHV gave her family two and a half years of stability.

She was nervous when she sat down. Banks offered her water and told her to take her time.

A woman testified through an Arabic translator. She is a single mother in Bay Ridge, a domestic violence survivor. She said the voucher was the only reason she felt safe. “Before I got this voucher, I was extremely stressed about my ability to pay rent. I was considering going back to Egypt,” she said. “I don’t want my daughter to change schools. I don’t want her to lose her community.”

A written statement was read on behalf of Dr. Qua’ser Brown, who had a school interview and could not attend. “Housing is the foundation that allows people to succeed. EHV gave me that foundation. We are not asking for luxury. We are asking for the opportunity to continue living, working, learning, and contributing to our communities.”

The Landlord Who Never Got the Letter

NYCHA said it sent letters and emails to all affected landlords starting in March 2026. Angelica Charles, testifying virtually, said that was not true for her landlord.

“I can tell you that my landlord never received that email,” she said. “I received the email in March. I followed all the protocols, but yet I was told that I’m on the wait list.”

What CM Banks Introduced This Week

Intro 926 requires NYCHA to report monthly on vacant units, how many are habitable, how many are under repair, and what the timelines are. NYCHA currently has no public monthly accounting of its vacancies.

Resolution 495 calls on the New York State Legislature to strengthen the state’s Housing Access Voucher Program. As currently funded, HAVP covers roughly 1,000 vouchers statewide. New York City was allocated nearly 8,000 EHV vouchers. Resolution 495 calls for stronger inspection standards and priority placement for EHV holders losing their assistance.

If You Hold an EHV Voucher

What Happens Next

HPD’s Home TBRA stop-gap program has about two years of funding. After that, the 1,700 NYCHA households and 2,000 HPD households on that program face the same problem again in 2028. Both agencies said the only long-term solution is restored federal Section 8 funding.

Whether EHV holders will be made eligible for CityFHEPS, which would let them stay in their current apartments with a city-funded voucher, remains unresolved. HPD said it prefers to use existing resources before turning to CityFHEPS. Advocates at the hearing disagreed. The Coalition for the Homeless called for at least $500 million in CityFHEPS funding and said those vouchers must be made available to EHV holders now. The New York Housing Conference called on the city to extend CityFHEPS eligibility to NYCHA EHV families and fund it in the FY2027 budget. Safe Horizon called for expanding CityFHEPS for survivors of domestic violence.

East New York Times will continue to cover this. If you hold an EHV voucher in East New York and want to share your experience, email us at info@eastnewyorktimes.com.