Affordable housing · vouchers
SOTA: one year of rent for households leaving shelter
How Special One-Time Assistance works: eligibility for working households in shelter, one year of rent paid to the landlord up front, where it can be used, and what happens at renewal.
Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0At a glance
- Run by
- DHS / HRA
- Who
- Households in shelter with income to carry the rent after the first year
- Pays
- Twelve months of rent to the landlord in advance
- Where
- New York City, elsewhere in the state and some other states
- After year one
- The household pays the full rent itself
One year of rent paid in advance.
How it works
SOTA pays a full year of rent directly to the landlord when a working household leaves shelter. The rent must be affordable to the household on its own income afterward, which is the point: the program buys a year of stability, not an ongoing subsidy.
Units are inspected before approval. Landlords sign an agreement that covers the year and the renewal terms.
For landlords
- A year of rent arrives at once; the trade is a household whose income, not a voucher, pays year two.
- Bulwark verifies income and prepares the agreement and inspection so the unit qualifies.
Questions
Common questions about SOTA
Households are placed in one program or the other; the caseworker and the shelter decide which fits the household’s income.
Official sources
Program rules change; the agency page is the authority. Checked October 2026.
Brooklyn, NY
Placing a SOTA household, or a unit that could take one?
Caseworkers refer clients at no cost to the tenant. Landlords send the vacancy and we bring a program-ready tenant with the agency’s packet done.
Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0