As New York Metropolis grapples with the continued housing disaster, CityFHEPS, a city-funded voucher program for low-income households, has performed an more and more outstanding position in securing housing for among the poorest residents within the metropolis. However this system, which has grown astronomically since its inception in 2018, is locked in authorized turmoil amid a years-long battle to increase it.
CityFHEPS began out beneath the de Blasio Administration in 2019 as a consolidated model of a number of city-funded rental subsidy packages designed to cut back the inhabitants of homeless shelters throughout town by making certain that low-income households pay not more than 30% of their earnings on hire.
Underlining the dimensions of town’s housing disaster, this system has grown from a finances of simply $25 million in its inaugural 12 months to a staggering $1.25 billion in 2025, masking greater than 55,000 households.
This system’s growth has helped to ease the burden on the massively over-subscribed Part 8 Housing Alternative Voucher program, which additionally ensures that low-income households pay not more than 30% of their earnings on hire. In line with 2024 information, almost 123,000 households in New York Metropolis depend on federally funded housing vouchers, which stay in excessive demand, with waitlists stretching for years.
With Part 8 straining beneath elevated demand, CityFHEPS has proved a significant useful resource for town’s low-income households who come nowhere near affording market-rate residences and are largely locked out of town’s housing lottery, which bases “affordable” charges off an Space Median Revenue (AMI) that doesn’t mirror the true citywide median.
CityFHEPS, just like the Part 8 program, is subsequently one of many solely choices accessible to low-income New Yorkers looking for lodging within the metropolis.
Nonetheless, critics say this system has an inherent flaw – one which has been the topic of a two-year authorized dispute between Metropolis Corridor and Metropolis Council. CityFHEPS is primarily solely accessible to households who’re in homeless shelters, which means {that a} rent-burdened family should lose their dwelling and enter the shelter system if they’re to qualify for a city-funded housing voucher.
The Metropolis Council voted in 2023 to increase this system to rent-burdened New Yorkers earlier than they enter the shelter system, however the transfer was met with pushback from the Adams Administration, who vetoed the council vote, stating that the prices to increase CityFHEPS have been too nice. The council then overrode that veto, forcing the administration to increase it– which Adams defied citing value. The council then filed a lawsuit.
Estimates for the price of the growth fluctuate tremendously, with the Council’s fiscal impression assertion estimating that the growth would value $10.6 billion over a five-year interval. Metropolis Corridor, in the meantime, estimates that the growth would value town $17.2 billion over 5 years.
The New York County Supreme Court docket dominated in Adams’ favor final August when it moved that state legislation prohibits the Metropolis Council from having policymaking authority over social providers. The Metropolis Council and non-profit the Authorized Assist Society are interesting the ruling.
Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala. William Alatriste/NYC Council Media Unit
Deputy Council Speaker Diana Ayala, chair of the Council’s Committee on Normal Welfare who represents the eighth Council District in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx, mentioned she was disillusioned by the Adams administration’s efforts to dam the growth of this system, noting that it prices town extra to deal with people in homeless shelters than it does to maintain them of their current condominium through a housing voucher.
“If a person has an apartment and they would qualify anyway… why not just keep them in their apartment and allow them to apply?” Ayala mentioned.
Ayala additionally blasted Metropolis Corridor over a latest resolution to introduce a requirement mandating that households who’ve been on this system for 5 years pay 40% of their earnings on hire as an alternative of 30%. The requirement would solely apply to households who’ve an earned earnings, Metropolis Corridor officers mentioned.
Ayala, nevertheless, famous that the vouchers apply to a family’s pre-tax earnings—fairly than its internet earnings—and mentioned low-income households nonetheless wrestle to cowl bills, even when receiving CityFHEPS vouchers. Ayala recalled receiving Part 8 vouchers within the Nineteen Nineties and mentioned nearly half of her internet earnings went towards hire.
“When I had Section 8, that meant that my entire second check of the month went towards the rent for the following month,” Ayala mentioned. “Now we have a completely different situation, where we have higher rates of utilities, higher rates of food, expenses for children.”
Ayala mentioned town’s resolution to lift the hire burden to 40% may also make it harder for households to save cash and turn out to be self-sufficient.
Council Member Pierina Ana Sanchez, chair of the Council’s Committee on Housing who represents a portion of the West Bronx in Council District 14, equally lambasted the Mayor’s workplace, describing the Adams Administration as a “paradox” that touts reasonably priced housing preservation and building objectives whereas not doing the “one thing” that may assist native communities probably the most.
Sanchez mentioned CityFHEPS’ present eligibility necessities dictate that the “only place” the place a rent-burdened family can get the assistance they want is after they enter the shelter system.
Sanchez added that an eviction not solely removes a household from their dwelling, however disconnects them from very important facilities.
“There’s a lot of research that shows that a family that suffers through an eviction gets disconnected from their neighborhood doctors, their neighborhood schools, their community, their social network,” Sanchez mentioned. “That has actual impacts on that household and their potential to maintain progressing and be steady.
Robert Desir, employees legal professional for the Authorized Assist Society, mentioned it will be a “much more desirable outcome” if folks have been in a position to keep of their condominium. He mentioned households who would in any other case qualify for this system are presently paying rents beneath $1,500 and mentioned town would save substantial cash by providing vouchers to households earlier than they enter the shelter system.
Desir mentioned households are unlikely to seek out such low-cost rents once more if they’re evicted and compelled to seek out new lodging utilizing CityFHEPS vouchers. He additionally famous that it’s disruptive.
“People who have been in their communities for a very long time are being removed from their community…which can be problematic for families that have children that go to school,” Desir mentioned.
The Mayor’s workplace pushed again strongly towards criticism, pointing to the large growth of this system since he took workplace in 2022. Metropolis Corridor officers famous that this system has grown from a finances of $253 million in FY21 to a projected finances of $1.25 billion for FY25.
Officers additional said that it’s “factually inaccurate” to state that the Mayor’s workplace is reluctant to increase CityFHEPS provided that this system’s finances is now 5 occasions bigger than when Adams took workplace.
They additional contended that lowering the extent of metropolis assist for households who’ve been CityFHEPS recipients for 5 years or extra implies that town can direct sources to those that want them probably the most. They famous that CityFHEPS is just not supposed to be a everlasting measure and goals to set households on the trail to self-sufficiency, describing the eventual discount of metropolis help as a “common sense” strategy.
Sanchez, nevertheless, mentioned the measure will solely save town round $25 million per 12 months and referred to as on Metropolis Corridor to “find the savings somewhere else.” She mentioned rising the hire burden for low-income New Yorkers will make it even tougher for households to save cash and go away them with much less disposable than earlier than.
“We’re going to save $25 million a year by screwing up lives for our lowest income New Yorkers who are trying to make ends meet, trying to work and trying to keep their families afloat,” Sanchez mentioned.
Ayala, in the meantime, mentioned the measure will be sure that CityFHEPS is a “revolving door to poverty” with no method out for voucher holders.
Rachel Price, government director of reasonably priced housing non-profit the Housing Convention, mentioned the measure of accelerating the hire burden to 40% would place a “huge burden” on low-income New Yorkers by taking away cash that’s wanted for requirements similar to meals and childcare.
Metropolis Corridor mentioned it was unfair that the Adams Administration was being topic to criticism from housing teams given the exponential growth of the CityFHEPS program. They mentioned advocates ought to focus their efforts on demanding that the state and federal authorities “step up” their housing voucher packages.
New Yorkers rallied on Oct. 1, 2024, because the Metropolis Council and Authorized Assist Society appealed a courtroom ruling blocking efforts to drive Metropolis Corridor to increase CityFHEPS housing voucher eligibility, as required beneath a Metropolis Council legislation that went into impact at the start of 2024. Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit
The New York State legislature included a $50 million housing voucher pilot program within the recently-approved state finances, successfully changing the state’s $65 million Benefit housing voucher program axed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011 when he sought to stability the state finances.
The State’s Housing Voucher Entry Program, which takes impact in March 2026, will present state-funded vouchers for homeless households or households at imminent threat of shedding their housing. Vouchers will probably be accessible to households making as much as 50 % of AMI.
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, representing elements of Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, mentioned this system will “really help” households vulnerable to homelessness by serving to them get direct state-funded assist for steady housing.
Nonetheless, Metropolis Corridor officers expressed frustration that the state is receiving reward for the brand new pilot program, whereas the Mayor’s workplace takes criticism for overseeing a program that dwarfs the brand new state voucher program. Meeting Member Claire Valdez, representing Western Queens, has mentioned that the state’s new voucher program “does not go far enough.”
In the meantime, the Trump Administration has proposed main cuts to the Part 8 voucher program on the federal degree, proposing a transfer that may tie Part 8 housing vouchers, public housing assist, and help to the aged and disabled right into a single grant and reducing the entire by $27 billion nationwide.
Price mentioned that Trump’s proposed cuts would additional erode the federal security internet, with “catastrophic” penalties for New York Metropolis. It will require town and state to assist cowl the shortfall.
The Residents Price range Committee, a nonpartisan nonprofit that examines metropolis and state public coverage, nevertheless, is just not even assured that town may even afford the CityFHEPS expansions that the Council is pushing for.
The group put out a report in February on CityFHEPS, and famous that individuals “don’t appreciate” how massive this system has grown and the way town can’t “voucher its way out of the crisis.” The report additional said that CityFHEPS’ present development is “unsustainable,” stating that this system has not decreased demand for shelter house or addressed rising rents within the metropolis.
Yvonne Peña, public advantages and housing coverage analyst with Neighborhood Service Society, a non-profit preventing for extra equitable entry to reasonably priced housing, mentioned the expansion and demand of this system speaks to the extent of the housing disaster.
“We are seeing that more people need housing and need support financially to stay and to remain stably housed,” Peña mentioned. “The numbers don’t lie.”
Sanchez, in the meantime, “took exception” to the notion that the Council is attempting to “voucher its way out” of the housing disaster, stating that the Council has been “doing a lot of different things” to fight the disaster, along with increasing the CityFHEPS program.
Sean Campion, CBC’s Director of Housing and Financial Growth Research, mentioned the growth would primarily double the present scale of this system and questioned whether or not town has the means to cowl the price of the growth.
“The city budget is in a pretty precarious place before you can start looking at the federal cuts,” Campion mentioned.
He harassed that CityFHEPS should be a part of a multi-pronged resolution to the housing disaster.
Campion additionally famous that town is not only dealing with the impression of cuts to Part 8 but additionally dealing with cuts to Medicaid, SNAP meals help and an entire host of different “downstream effects” that the Trump Administration’s proposals might trigger.
“In the event that these things do come to pass, you know, they’re going to have to make choices about, what,” Campion mentioned.
Nonetheless, Campion tempered among the worry surrounding Trump’s proposed cuts by noting that the Part 8 program has loved bipartisan assist in Congress and that this system was not minimize throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace.
“I think there’s some general faith that what was proposed in that budget may not come to pass,” Campion mentioned.
That mentioned, even when the Part 8 program survives Trump’s tried funding cuts, questions over CityFHEPS and the position it’ll play in abating the housing disaster will stay.
CityFHEPS can present an answer to town’s housing disaster, however each these in favor and against its growth agree that it cannot be the one resolution.
Gonzalez, for instance, mentioned housing vouchers are solely “one part” of the potential resolution to the housing disaster, stating that each town and state want to speculate extra in public housing. Gonzalez famous that the state finances allotted $225 million to NYCHA however insisted that that is “not enough.”
Ayala believes that town program continues to develop in dimension as a result of rents proceed to climb whereas salaries stay static. Nonetheless, she believes that town wants to handle different points similar to wage inequality and hovering rents with a view to present households with the means to turn out to be self-sufficient.
“We need more programs because it’s pretty obvious that more and more people are qualifying because they’re not able to make ends meet, because the rate of rent continues to climb while salaries stay the same,” Ayala mentioned.
