July 2025
Spotlight on: Housing Affordability and the Threat of Cuts to Federal Housing Assistance Programs
Housing assistance programs effectively reduce the poverty rate among recipients
Contributors: Anastasia Koutavas, Sophie Collyer, and Yajun Jia
Issues Areas: Housing Hardship
Our most recent Poverty Tracker spotlight report demonstrates the profound poverty-alleviating effect that federal and local housing assistance programs have on low-income New York City renters.
Findings show that public housing and rental assistance programs, including federal Section 8 and New York City’s CityFHEPS program, collectively cut poverty among program beneficiaries from 55% to 37%—or roughly a third. As a result, these programs keep 150,000 New Yorkers above the poverty line and spare an additional 140,000 from deep poverty, defined as living below 50% of the poverty line.
This spotlight on housing assistance follows the annual Poverty Tracker report, released in February, which found an increase in the citywide poverty rate to a historic 25%, up from 23% just a year earlier. This increase in poverty was driven by the rising cost of basic necessities, particularly the persistently high cost of rent. While all New Yorkers face the city’s affordability crisis, those living in poverty unsurprisingly bear the heaviest burden.
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New Yorkers are rent burdened, devoting more than 30% of their income to rent. Renters in poverty are more than 9X as likely to be rent burdened than those living above 200% of the poverty line.
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New Yorkers are lifted out of poverty by housing assistance programs, reducing the poverty rate among recipients from 55% to 37%.
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Additional New Yorkers will fall below the poverty line if federal housing assistance programs are cut, increasing the poverty rate among current beneficiaries by nearly 20%.
Across the city, 40% of renters are rent-burdened, defined as spending more than 30% of their income on rent. However, New Yorkers in poverty make up the vast majority of renters who are severely rent-burdened, defined as spending more than half of their incomes towards housing. In fact, rent-burdened New Yorkers in poverty allocate an alarming 72% of their income towards keeping a roof over their heads. Housing assistance helps fill this gap and helps New Yorkers meet their essential expenses.
