Correction: The story and headline have been corrected to reflect that the bill package does not provide rental assistance to asylum seekers.
More people in New York City are set to become eligible for rental assistance programs thanks to a bill passed by the City Council on Thursday. The measure passed as the city says the migrant crisis has overloaded the shelter system, providing fewer housing options for asylum seekers.
“This is a solution to help reduce homelessness, stabilize communities, free up space for asylum seekers, and others, all while saving money on costly emergency shelters that skew far more expensive than traditional shelter models that are offered in New York City,” Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a news conference before the bill package passed.
The bills – each of which contained more than 30 co-sponsors – remove an array of requirements needed to enter its rental assistance programs, including the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or CityFHEPS, a housing voucher program. Under the bill, families will no longer have to spend at least three months in a shelter before they can access the housing voucher. One bill expands eligibility to anyone who is experiencing homelessness, or is at risk of eviction, while others remove the requirement that someone must have previously lived in a shelter or meet a certain income or employment status benchmark. A fourth bill reduced the amount of money people with these vouchers need to pay for utilities.
The language in two of these bills, Intro 878 and 893, will also reassert the rights that people aged 18 to 24 and are currently in the city’s runaway and homeless youth programs have to access CityFHEPS, according to Jamie Powlovich, who leads the Coalition for Homeless Youth.
“We’re not putting a timeline on trauma before someone gets access to a basic human need, which is housing, and I think that that’s really important,” she said.
But the bills – which all passed with a veto-proof majority – are also being met with criticism from others, including the mayor and the media .
In a statement, Fabien Levy, press secretary to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, said the bills "will make it harder for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to exit shelter to permanent housing."
"Nearly 20,000 existing voucher holders who cannot currently find housing because of the extremely low vacancy rate in our city would be lumped in with thousands more, including anyone who stops paying rent, for any reason, if they are below 50 percent of area median income,“ said Levy.
Levy also said that the bills would cost an additional $17 billion over the next five years, "something that is hard not to view as an attempt to force a tax increase on New Yorkers." He said the mayor's office was reviewing options.
Councilmember Diana Ayala, who sponsored one of the measures, fired back at the criticism.
“We don’t have the luxury of waiting here, we don’t have that luxury,” she said. “These are families that are hungry, that are unhoused, and that are living in rat and sometimes roach-infested apartments – those that were able to get them. It’s just not possible.”
Christine C. Quinn, a former City Council speaker who is now the president and CEO of Win, which provides services to homeless families, voiced sympathy toward the “tough spot” that the mayor – and his administration – are in with the ongoing crises.
“I think the administration – which I understand – feels overwhelmed,” she said. “And when you feel overwhelmed, in your job or in life, you react. And in that reacting, you miss good opportunities like these four pieces of legislation.”
Others also applauded the bill's passage, like Sarah Wilson, who was once homeless herself and now heads the Safety Net Activists, which advocates for those experiencing poverty.
“Forcing people who are already living with the trauma of being unhoused to spend any additional time in that state causes multiple physical and mental health issues as well as the breakdown of family and interpersonal relationships,” she said in a statement ahead of the vote. “I can not change the losses I experienced as a result of these policies, but I now can sleep better at night knowing others will not have to suffer the same way thanks to the new bills passed by City Council.”
The surge of migrant and asylum-seeker arrivals in New York, which is a sanctuary city, comes as officials are still contending with the large number of homeless New Yorkers. Mayor Eric Adams’ administration said the city will need to spend billions of dollars to address the migrants' needs and is calling for sweeping budget cuts, including to the city's home-delivered meal program for seniors and funding for its public schools. The mayor is also attempting to remove New York City's right-to-shelter law, which requires the city to house anyone who asks for a bed.
“We cannot underfund and undermine the various agencies that connect New Yorkers with the essential services that help them,” Speaker Adams said. “The well-being of our city, communities and economy are all bound to how well the budget invests in essential services.”
This story has been updated with comment from the mayor's office.
