Mayor Adams opposes bills that could make it easier to leave shelters

The New York City Council will this week approve a major expansion of a housing benefit program to help people move into homes more quickly from homeless shelters.

But the effort will face a formidable opponent: Mayor Eric Adams.

A series of bills that the Council is expected to approve Thursday would end a rule requiring people to stay in shelters for 90 days before being eligible for city-funded rental vouchers — a move housing advocates have long been calling for. are looking. The bills would expand the number of people eligible for vouchers to those who receive written demands from their landlords for rent owed.

It is not clear how many people the measures affect. But in a statement on Tuesday, Mr Adams opposed the bills, which target a city voucher program known as City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement. He said the changes would add “billions on the backs of New York taxpayers” and take away the city’s ability to “direct our limited resources to those most in need.”

The rift within the city government is unfolding as the number of homeless shelters has reached an all-time high, with an influx of migrants arriving from the southern border colliding with the ongoing housing crisis.

Councilwoman Diana Ayala, a Democrat representing parts of East Harlem and the Bronx who is the lead sponsor behind the bill targeting the 90-day rule, said the changes amounted to a logical solution by allowing people already in shelters to leave early and make room for newcomers.

“The sooner we start, the better,” she said. “Why delay that? Why do we want to extend someone’s stay in the shelter?”

Rental vouchers are, in theory, an effective solution to homelessness: City officials note that less than 1 percent of families with children who move out of shelters return with a voucher.

But the program runs into a number of hurdles.

There aren’t enough affordable housing and the city is struggling to subsidize enough new apartments, meaning that even if someone has a voucher, it could take months to find a place.

Many tenants with vouchers have said they are turned away by landlords, even though discrimination on vouchers is illegal. And the city has also encountered difficulties in implementing the program. Staff shortages and dysfunction within agencies can make the process erratic for many people looking for housing.

The city has pursued a number of changes: reducing the hours people have to work to keep vouchers, for example.

The bills passed Thursday would mark a bigger overhaul. In addition to targeting the 90-day rule, they would also remove the work requirements.

“We’re trying to reduce the amount of time people spend in shelters, and we’re also trying to prevent them from going to shelters in the first place,” said Pierina Sanchez, a councilwoman and Bronx Democrat behind two of the bills.

New York is the only major city in the country to offer a “right to shelter,” a requirement to provide a bed to anyone who requests it. As the number of homeless people has reached record levels in the city in recent months, the Adams administration has turned to hotels and other options to accommodate them.

Proponents of the bills argue that the cost to the city of additional vouchers would be offset by reduced spending on shelters, mental health services and law enforcement. They argue that more New Yorkers living in permanent homes would also lead to better public health and a healthier economy.

The financial picture is more complicated, says Andrew Rein, chairman of the Citizens Budget Commission, a not-for-profit tax watchdog. The committee estimates the city will provide rental assistance to about 11,000 households leaving shelters in the current fiscal year, which ends in the summer — the highest number since the start of the pandemic.

In fiscal year 2015, the city spent about $16 million on rent assistance, according to the commission. In the current fiscal year, the city will spend more than $630 million, most of it through the voucher program. And the city budgets just $192 million for rent assistance next year, Mr. Rein said.

Recent changes, including one that increased the value of vouchers, have contributed to higher costs, according to the committee. Mr Rein said the city should better understand how expanding voucher eligibility will increase costs and decide where to offset those costs.

“It’s not an unreasonable choice,” said Mr. Clean. “But there has to be a companion where the money comes from.”

Dana Rubinstein reporting contributed.