A state employee was busted yesterday for allegedly stealing nearly $1 million from a housing-subsidy program for the poor.

Agnes Bernier, 55, of The Bronx, is accused of swiping hundreds of money orders since 2004 while working at the downtown Manhattan office of New York State Homes and Community Renewal.

A Manhattan federal-court indictment says that instead of processing the money orders, Bernier wrote her own name on them and deposited them into her bank accounts, including 17 last month.

She faces up to 40 years in the slammer if convicted.