Alliance Alert: The Alliance for Rights and Recovery applauds Governor Hochul and the Legislature for advancing efforts to expand eligibility for the Senior and Disability Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE and DRIE) programs. Raising the income threshold to $75,000 is a meaningful step toward protecting older adults and people with disabilities from rising housing costs and helping more New Yorkers remain stable in their homes and communities.
Housing stability is a cornerstone of recovery, health, and community inclusion. For people living on fixed or limited incomes, even modest rent increases can quickly lead to financial strain, housing instability, or displacement. Expanding access to rent freezes recognizes the growing affordability crisis facing older New Yorkers and people with disabilities.
At the same time, expansion alone will not be enough to make these programs work as intended. Additional improvements are needed to ensure people do not lose eligibility due to small cost-of-living adjustments that do not reflect real financial gains. Income thresholds should be tied to inflation so participants are not pushed off the program simply because of modest annual increases.
We are also concerned about income calculations that count Medicaid premiums and other essential health costs as income. These expenses reduce, rather than increase, a person’s ability to afford rent and should not be used to disqualify individuals from critical housing protections.
Finally, awareness remains a major barrier. Many eligible households never apply because they do not know the programs exist or find the application process confusing. The state and local governments must invest in outreach, clear notices, and community-based enrollment assistance so that eligible tenants can actually access the protections available to them.
Expanding eligibility is an important step forward. Now New York must ensure these programs are stable, accessible, and designed to keep people housed for the long term. Preventing displacement and protecting affordability for people with disabilities and older adults is essential to building healthier, more stable communities across our state.
Hochul Wants to Expand Rent Freezes for Senior & Disabled New Yorkers. Can the State Get Them to Sign Up?
By Patrick Spauster | City Limits | February 18, 2026
Rarely are tenants, landlords, legislators, and executives all in agreement. But in New York State, they appear to be on the same page when it comes to freezing the rent for low income seniors and people with disabilities.
In her State of the State address last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed expanding a lesser-known program that freezes the rent for seniors or people with disabilities who have low incomes. The lost rent increases are offset by a property tax credit for landlords.
Not to be confused with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promised rent freeze for all rent stabilized tenants, the Senior and Disability Rent Increase Exemptions (known as SCRIE and DRIE, respectively) are targeted to eligible households with incomes below $50,000.
Now the governor wants to raise eligibility to $75,000. But supporters of the program say that won’t be enough: the city needs more to get people to actually use the exemptions. “Many, many people who are eligible are not aware of them… and don’t apply,” said New York State Senate Housing Chair Brian Kavanagh.
A 2025 report from the city’s Department of Finance estimated that just 42 percent of households eligible for the program were using it in 2023, down from 56 percent in 2019.
Total enrollment fell from 75,000 recipients in 2019 to 68,000 in 2024, despite DOF’s estimates that there were more eligible households. Participants have to be living in rent-regulated apartments and pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent to be eligible for the freeze. The report notes that utilization rates have gone down in part because buildings owners reported more rent stabilized units to the state.
Kavanagh helped put together a package of bills in the New York State Senate that would tie SCRIE and DRIE eligibility to inflation, ensure no tenant in the program pays more than 30 percent of their income in rent, and require notice be sent to all eligible tenants.
While Hochul backs raising the eligibility cap to $75,000, she would not say if she supports the suite of bills that supporters say are critical to getting the program to work.
“Governor Hochul will review any legislation that passes both houses of the legislature,” a spokesperson said in a statement to City Limits.
Barbara Collins, a senior who lives in a Mitchell-Lama apartment, said that she was pushed just out of eligibility range because the city’s formula counts her Medicaid premiums as income. In addition to raising the income threshold and tying it to inflation, Collins called for excluding those premiums in income calculations.
“This is crazy. It’s so hard for seniors in New York City,” said Collins, who has also been pushing lawmakers to help seniors better understand the program’s complicated application.
Even if officials vote to raise the income threshold, advocates worry that having a hard cap on eligibility might kick tenants off the program later on as they get cost of living adjustments.
“Without tying the income threshold to cost of living adjustments for seniors and folks with disabilities, this will be a temporary fix,” said Genesis Aquino, executive director at Tenants & Neighbors. “Tenants will continue to lose eligibility every year as rents and basic expenses rise, and the state will be back here again while more low-income people are pushed toward displacement.”
Landlord groups like the New York Apartment Association also support expanding eligibility. CEO Kenny Burgos said that his group tries to educate landlords about the program but thinks the city can do more to reach tenants who may be eligible.
His group opposes the broader rent-stabilized rent freeze that Mamdani championed as part of his affordability-focused election campaign. But it supports the SCRIE and DRIE programs in large part because they offset the costs of rent freezes with property tax credits.
“We’re supportive of it because this is a policy that actually tackles affordability and doesn’t defund buildings,” said Burgos.
Burgos said that rent freezes without accounting for increased costs to landlords lead to distress in rent stabilized properties. Tenant advocates, on the other hand, have argued that a 12 percent rent increase under former Mayor Eric Adams pushed vulnerable households out of the city.