Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged to expand eligibility for city housing vouchers according to City Council laws that his predecessor failed to implement. Faced with steep fiscal challenges, he said the city is now pursuing a settlement that balances housing needs and budget sustainability.
Mayor Mamdani speaking to reporters on Thursday. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)
The Mamdani administration is backtracking on a campaign commitment to expand eligibility for the city’s housing voucher program.
Advocates have been calling for the new mayor to implement an expansion of the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) program that would enable people with higher incomes and people facing eviction to get rental subsidies.
The City Council passed the expansion in 2023, only for former Mayor Eric Adams to refuse to implement it. The Council then sued. Mamdani pledged to drop the suit during his campaign.
But facing a budget deficit, the expansion’s future became cloudy last month, as City Limits reported. On Thursday, the administration said it was pursuing a settlement in the case, rather than dropping it, as Mamdani had pledged while running for office.
“We got the promise of how this is going to be a new era in City Hall and in New York City, but it feels like the mayor is replicating similar failures from previous administrations in not really being bold and centering solutions … that can actually help us put a dent on the mass homelessness crisis,” said Adolfo Abreu, housing campaigns director at VOCAL-NY, a group that organizes with people in shelters.
The Mamdani administration is feeling the pressure of balancing its first budget, which has a $7 billion deficit. CityFHEPS currently serves over 65,000 households—making it the second largest voucher program in the country. Its budget soared to $1.25 billion last fiscal year, a five-fold increase since 2021.
Comptroller Mark Levine estimated that implementing the Council’s expansion would increase the budget deficit by $6 to $20 billion in the next five years.
“Right now we are pursuing a settlement in this case and that is a pursuit that looks to both prevent homelessness in our city while also delivering a budget that is not just responsible, but also sustainable,” said Mayor Mamdani in response to a question about the expansion Thursday morning.
Under the program, voucher holders—usually people leaving city homeless shelters—pay 30 percent of their income in rent, with the voucher covering the remainder. Supporters say the expansion would help prevent homelessness before it starts and move vulnerable New Yorkers into housing.
The appeals court ruled that the mayor had to implement the expansion (a move Mamdani applauded at the time), only for the Adams administration to appeal it again.
Christine Quinn, CEO of Women in Need (WIN), which operates homeless shelters for families with children, was optimistic about Mamdani’s stance on vouchers when she spoke with City Limits a few weeks ago. She was disappointed to see the mayor walking it back.
“CityFHEPS is a proven program that has allowed thousands of New Yorkers to leave shelter for good. Amid a persistent homelessness crisis, we are asking Mayor Mamdani to honor his promise to drop the City’s legal challenge to CityFHEPS expansion and to provide a clear timeline for seeing this expansion through,” said Quinn in a statement to City Limits.
Women in Need released a report Thursday arguing that fully implementing the expansion would save the city $635 million by offsetting shelter costs. The report disputes claims by the Citizens Budget Commission, which highlighted the fast-growing budget for the program.
Councilmember Crystal Hudson, a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, also came out against Mamdami’s decision: “I am deeply disappointed by the Mayor’s reversal on implementing City law to expand CityFHEPS eligibility,” she said in a statement. “Affordability was a central campaign promise for the mayor, and expanding housing vouchers is one of the clearest ways to make good on that promise.”
It’s unclear what a settlement might look like, and what it means for the cost of the program and those potentially eligible.
“We need leadership that’s able to say, ‘This is the plan for how we’re going to ensure that we’re, one, creating pathways for people out of homelessness,’” said Abreu. “And, more important for us—the expansion is crucial in this—providing support for people so they don’t have to become homeless in the first place.”
Edward Josephson, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society working on the Council lawsuit, said Mamdani’s decision will only lead to further delays. “Meanwhile all the people in eviction proceedings that would have been covered by this law will not be,” he said.
Here’s what else happened in housing this week—
ICYMI, from City Limits:
ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:
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