Mayor Eric Adams was handed a blow Thursday when a state court ordered his administration to comply with the city council\u2019s controversial plan to expand the Big Apple\u2019s housing voucher program \u2014 which Hizzoner has warned would saddle the city with an eye-popping $17 billion price tag over five years.<\/p>\n
The Adams admin and the council have been locked in a years-long bitter feud over reforms that would amend eligibility for services under the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, known as CityFHEPS.<\/p>\n
The Adams admin was dealt its second major blow by the courts system in two weeks Thursday. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City Council, as the legislative branch of city government, has the right to pass local laws crafting putative shelter supplements,\u201d the court\u2019s decision read.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s reforms put New Yorkers facing eviction on the fast track to get housing vouchers without first having to spend three months in the city shelter system, would bar landlords from deducting costs of utility bills from a voucher, would increase the income level of cutoff to qualify for aid and would remove work requirements.<\/p>\n
Hizzoner has argued that the expansion would cost taxpayers $17 billion over five years \u2014 and would make it harder for people to leave homeless shelters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdding more vouchers will only make it harder for people to leave homeless shelters. The affordable-housing crisis won\u2019t be solved by making people compete for nonexistent housing; it will be solved by building more housing \u2014 which the Adams administration has done at record levels \u2014 and actually connecting people who already have vouchers to homes,\u201d Adams admin spokesperson, Liz Garcia, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Garcia also insisted that the Adams administration has already helped an \u201cunprecedented number\u201d of New Yorkers find housing.<\/p>\n
Adams has argued that the expansion would cost taxpayers $17 billion over five years. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Adams administration has utilized CityFHEPS more than any prior administration \u2014 helping an unprecedented number of New Yorkers obtain permanent housing last year, including nearly 8,000 New Yorkers we helped avoid shelter using CityFHEPS vouchers, in addition to thousands more we helped leave shelter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe accomplished this in the midst of a housing crisis with a 1.4% vacancy rate. But 13,000 households are still trying to use their CityFHEPS vouchers to find permanent housing, and we must focus on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
City council speaker Adrienne Adams (pictured) led the council\u2019s fight for the CityFHEPs reforms. William Farrington<\/p>\n
The city council, meanwhile, maintains that City Hall has overshot the cost of the reforms by $7 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that for two years Mayor Adams\u2019 administration stood in the way of removing barriers to housing vouchers that keep New Yorkers in their homes and move them from shelters to permanent homes,\u201d said Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for the city council.<\/p>\n
The state court ruling is the Adams admin\u2019s second notable blow in the last few weeks.<\/p>\n