Negotiations over New York City\u2019s next budget have hit a late snag as city council members mount a pressure campaign to convince Mayor Zohran Mamdani to boost funding for the city\u2019s rental voucher program.<\/p>\n
The program, called the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or CityFHEPS, allows recipients to pay 30% of their income toward rent, with the city paying the rest. It\u2019s the nation\u2019s largest municipal housing assistance program<\/a>. More than 26,000 people used the vouchers<\/a> to move out of shelters in the last fiscal year, according to city data.<\/p>\n Members of the council\u2019s Progressive Caucus pushed for CityFHEPS expansion in social media posts on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day that this program remains unexpanded, New Yorkers are forced out of homes, unable to keep up with ballooning rent,\u201d the caucus wrote in a statement<\/a>. \u201cWe urge the Speaker and Mayor to ensure that a balanced budget does not rest on the backs of New Yorkers grappling with a historic affordability crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n The social media blitz from progressives comes after City Council Speaker Julie Menin and other council members rallied on the steps of City Hall Friday to push the program\u2019s expansion.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe must guarantee long-term stability so that families at risk can stay in their homes and families in the shelter system can transition into housing,\u201d Menin said Friday. \u201cAnd with an expanded CityFHEPS, we can do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n Menin held the rally instead of joining Mamdani to make what would have been a handshake deal on the next budget, according to Council Member Pierina Sanchez, the chair of the council’s housing committee and a member of the Progressive Caucus. She said the voucher spat caused the delay.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe would have had a handshake on Friday and we would’ve been all set, all systems go to vote on a budget tomorrow, on Monday, had it not been for this disagreement,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n CityFHEPS was created in 2018 to help people living in shelters or at risk of homelessness secure housing. The council voted to expand the program in 2023, but that was met with a lawsuit by former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 administration, which challenged the council\u2019s authority and argued the city could not afford the expansion.<\/p>\n Mamdani campaigned on expanding CityFHEPS. Since taking office, his administration has continued the legal challenge<\/a> begun under Adams and sought to delay the expansion as the city faces a $5 billion budget deficit.<\/p>\n We can’t just walk away and settle.<\/p>\n Councilmember Pierina Sanchez<\/p>\n Menin urged Mamdani on Friday to drop the legal challenge.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThe administration should drop this costly and endless litigation and do it now,\u201d Menin said. \u201c\u200aWork with the council on a responsible path towards implementation. Continuing this lawsuit helps no one.\u201d<\/p>\n Menin did not include a call for expanding CityFHEPS in the council\u2019s budget response in April, only noting at that time that the council had offered a settlement of the litigation.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe have been ready, willing and able to reach a financially responsible settlement since day one. And in that time, too many New Yorkers who could’ve been receiving support from the program have been left behind,\u201d Menin said Friday. \u201cEnough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said the administration believes CityFHEPS is a critical program but that reforms are needed to protect its future.<\/p>\n “As the stewards of CityFHEPS, and as an administration that firmly believes in its purpose, we want to protect it by placing it on firm financial footing,\u201d Rauschenbach said.<\/p>\n Settlement negotiations in the lawsuit are ongoing. Sanchez is part of those discussions and she said she believes all parties have been working in good faith.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWhatever we land at will have a price tag, and that price tag is what we are basically fighting about right now and we can’t just walk away and settle,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cWe can’t just sign a settlement that then isn’t going to deliver that immediate relief that was intended by the original legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n WIN, the city\u2019s largest family shelter provider, estimates expanding CityFHEPS could save the city as much as $635 million in shelter costs over five years by getting or keeping people in their homes and reducing demand for shelter services.<\/p>\n Sustaining growing voucher programs is just something that municipal budgets can’t handle.<\/p>\n Paul Williams, the executive director of the Center for Public Enterprise<\/p>\n Menin and other council members have used potential shelter savings as a core part of their argument for expanding the voucher program.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWhy would we reject this option that costs the city as little as $54 per day when the cost of homeless shelters is as high as $270 per day?\u201d Menin said.<\/p>\n Calls to expand the city-funded program come as the federal government cuts back on its own rental assistance programs, including the elimination of the COVID-era Emergency Housing Voucher program that has helped 7,700 New York City households secure stable housing, and as Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York State lawmakers refuse to increase funding for a modest state-issued rental voucher program.<\/p>\n Paul Williams, the executive director of the Center for Public Enterprise and a housing policy expert who served on Mamdani\u2019s transition team, said the federal government should be leading efforts to expand programs like CityFHEPS.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aMunicipal budgets are no replacement for the federal balance sheet,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSustaining growing voucher programs is just something that municipal budgets can’t handle, whereas the federal budget absolutely can.\u201d<\/p>\n Critics of expansion warn that the rental vouchers are more costly in the long run because recipients are likely to remain enrolled in CityFHEPS far longer than they stay in shelters, and because the expansion would open the program to people who haven\u2019t been in the shelter system.<\/p>\n The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan, nonprofit city budget watchdog group, projects CityFHEPS will cost $1.7 billion<\/a> in fiscal year 2026. The group estimates that if the council\u2019s expansion is implemented, the program will cost between $4.7 billion and $9.6 billion in fiscal year 2030.<\/p>\n