By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
The end of a prolonged legal battle between the mayor\u2019s office and the City Council over an expensive housing voucher program known as CityFHEPS was baked into the city\u2019s colossal $125 billion budget, which was passed by the Council late Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council, led by Speaker Julie Menin, agreed to expand the program to the tune of $175 million in the budget while also putting an end to the multi-year litigation that began under former Mayor Eric Adams and former Speaker Adrienne Adams. <\/p>\n
CityFHEPS, which provides housing vouchers for New Yorkers living in the city\u2019s shelter system, had been the last major sticking point in budget negotiations. The Mamdani administration was initially reluctant to fund an expansion of the program previously passed by the Council, despite the mayor\u2019s support for it on the campaign trail last year. <\/p>\n
The Council passed legislation in 2023 that expanded the program, but the Adams administration refused to implement the law arguing it was too costly to New Yorkers. The disagreement sparked the lawsuit. <\/p>\n
\u201cSince I became speaker in January, we have fought very hard to work on a settlement, because our position was there is no need to keep this endless, costly litigation,\u201d said Menin just after the handshake budget deal with Mamdani. \u201cWe should enter a responsible settlement that protects vulnerable New Yorkers and at the same time contains the costs of CityFHEPs, which we know has ballooned extremely high.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Mamdani administration initially continued the lawsuit over CityFHEPS despite Mamdani\u2019s assurances during the campaign that he was in favor of the expansion. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not only been negotiating the amount of money that we’re going to be investing into a new rental assistance program, but also how to bring to an end what we inherited from the prior administration in the lawsuit with the City Council,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cWe are resolving that lawsuit with a commitment not only to the intent of the legislation, but also the fiscal responsibility that for far too long has been absent in what City Hall has been doing in years past.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that the number one crisis New Yorkers are facing is the cost of living, and we have to address that crisis in a comprehensive manner,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The Legal Aid Society, which represented the Council in the legal case, also celebrated the settlement and increased funding for CityFHEPS. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s settlement is a major victory for New Yorkers in shelters and those facing eviction and homelessness, bringing an end to years of unnecessary litigation and clearing the way for more families to access life-saving rental assistance,\u201d said Robert Desir, staff attorney with the Civil Law Reform Unit at Legal Aid. \u201cMore New Yorkers will now be able to access the support they need before losing their homes, reaffirming what we\u2019ve long known: investing in rental assistance is both the humane choice and the fiscally responsible one.\u201d<\/p>\n
No new cops <\/p>\n
Another sticking point in this year\u2019s budget negotiations revolved around the NYPD\u2019s headcount. <\/p>\n
The Mamdani administration had flirted with increasing the number of cops, but received pushback from allies on the left. Ultimately, the budget does not include any increase. <\/p>\n
\u201cCommissioner [Jessica] Tish and I were able to identify ways to keep the NYPD headcount at the originally authorized 35,000 while also meeting all of our crime-fighting needs and implementing the new programs that were announced earlier this year,\u201d Mamdani said. <\/p>\n
His progressive allies, including Queens Councilmember Tiffany Cab\u00e1n, were pleased with the move. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery dollar we spend on policing and incarceration means money we can\u2019t spend on housing, mental health care, substance use treatment and economic stability,\u201d said the Western Queens lawmaker. <\/p>\n
However, Menin said she disagreed with the decision to not add anymore cops to the NYPD\u2019s ranks, and conservative lawmakers criticized the mayor following the budget announcement. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unacceptable that the Mamdani administration chose not to increase NYPD headcount,\u201d said Queens Councilmember Phil Wong. \u201cThe 104th, 110th, and 112th Precincts are already woefully understaffed, yet the staffing needs of our local police precincts are being left unaddressed. Our residents need more cops, faster response times, and real enforcement against the crime and quality-of-life issues affecting our neighborhoods. The Administration must make public safety a real priority and give our local precincts the staffing and resources they need to do their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair Fares <\/p>\n
The massive city budget also included a \u201chistoric\u201d investment in the Fair Fares program to help lower the cost of transportation for New Yorkers. <\/p>\n
The budget increases the baseline for the program by $54 million, and expands eligibility to New Yorkers making up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the largest expansion of fair fares in council history,\u201d said Menin. \u201cThat means for nearly 1.3 million working New Yorkers, we are making public transit more affordable. These are New Yorkers who rely on subways, buses and paratransit to get to work in the morning, to make it to school on time, to access all kinds of opportunities, and for whom this expansion shrinks a significant expense.\u201d <\/p>\n
The expansion of Fair Fares is not the full promise of \u201cfast and free\u201d buses that Mamdani ran on \u2013 the only one of his three main campaign proposals he has yet to address in his brief mayoralty \u2013 but he said it is a step in the right direction. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do this because we want to ensure that in the nation’s most expensive city there is no one that is priced out of exploring their own city and traveling, whether it be for work, whether it be to visit family, or whether it just be for fun,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cWe can believe and fight for all of these things at the same time.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach The end of a prolonged legal battle between the mayor\u2019s office and the City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-283695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}