Mayor Eric Adams is hoping to make life for struggling New Yorkers a little bit easier this week.
The mayor, as first reported by Politico, is set to suspend a rule that requires a person or family to spend 90 days in a shelter before becoming eligible for a rental assistance voucher.
What You Need To Know
- The 90-day rule requires that someone stays in a shelter 90 days before becoming eligible for a rental voucher
- The change comes just weeks after the City Council passed a veto-majority proof package of legislation aimed to completely eliminate the requirement
- The mayor’s expected move comes as the city has been struggling to house New Yorkers and arriving migrants
- City officials say more than 74,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city, and more than 46,000 are currently in the city’s care
The mayor’s decision comes just weeks after City Council passed a veto-proof legislative package aimed at completely eliminating the rule.
“No announcement is confirmed until we make it, but since day one of this administration, Mayor Adams has worked to shelter New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and connect our city’s residents with more permanent housing. The City Council’s package of bills, however, does the opposite — making it harder for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to exit shelter to permanent housing,” said Fabien Levy, the mayor’s press secretary.
The mayor has taken issue with the City Council’s package, including a bill that would extend the eligibility of the voucher program to not just those in shelter but to some New Yorkers struggling to pay rent.
“I think its poverty shaming and the assumption that people would make themselves destitute just to qualify for a voucher is just ludicrous,” said Diana Ayala, Deputy Speaker of the City Council. “People that would qualify for the CityFHEPS vouchers if they were in shelter shouldn’t have to be in the shelter to get it. We can prevent that family from having to absorb those extra hurdles and keep them in place.”
The administration also said the City Council’s changes would create more competition for the small amount of affordable housing that exists. A City Hall spokesperson said that costs would increase from $550 million this year to over $17 billion in a five-year period.
“The numbers are seriously inflated and they haven’t been able to show us exactly how they concluded this would be the costs,” Ayala said. “In fact, when we were meeting with them, right before we signed the bills, that number was 7 billion.”
Suspension of the rule comes as the city continues to grapple with the influx of asylum seekers.
On Monday, the city announced the opening of two more emergency centers on the Upper West Side that will serve families and single women.
City officials say more than 74,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city, and more than 46,000 are currently in the city’s care.
