![\"Anti-homelessness](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/031726_city_fheps_rally.jpg\")
Anti-homelessness advocates rally at City Hall in favor of funding for the CityFHEPS rental voucher program, March 17, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have to find a way to somehow meet a very narrow criteria to gain access to a voucher,\u201d said Jeffrey Ginsburg, president of VOA-GNY. \u201cAt the simplest level, we have this idea that we want people to work, but we don\u2019t want them to make too much money. On its face, you can say that sounds fair enough, but when you look at the details, it creates a narrow window and a very perverse set of incentives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homeless advocates and city officials agree that CityFHEPS helps people in shelters move into permanent housing and stay housed. City data<\/a> bears it out. But Mayor Zohran Mamdani is fighting a legal battle against<\/a> implementing a package of laws City Council passed in 2023 that would expand eligibility for the vouchers. As a candidate, he promised to put the laws<\/a> \u2014 which his predecessor Mayor Eric Adams did not implement \u2014\u00a0 into effect<\/a>, but reversed himself once in office as he faced budget pressures.\u00a0<\/p>\n About 68,000 households rely on CityFHEPS vouchers, which allow New Yorkers to pay about a third of their income toward rent. Another 47,000 households could come to depend on the program if it\u2019s expanded in line with the 2023 law, accounting to one estimate<\/a>.<\/p>\n The homeless New Yorkers who qualify for theCityFHEPS voucher must thread a needle to be able to keep it \u2014 like Ali Austin, a 51-year-old grandfather who has been living in a Coney Island shelter operated by another provider for nearly four years.<\/p>\n Austin said he\u2019d initially lost his home after the 2020 death of his mother. He\u2019d been living with her in New Jersey, taking care of her while she battled cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n When he moved to New York in 2022, he got a job working full time as a front desk agent for a supportive housing nonprofit. Because of that gig, he made too much money to qualify for CityFHEPS and hoped to get a different kind<\/a> of rental assistance voucher. That never came through.<\/p>\n In August of last year, he secured a different job, working three days a week with a reentry program. Now he earns less, putting him \u201cin the money frame that they say I need,\u201d to get a CityFHEPS voucher, he said. But he doesn\u2019t know how he\u2019ll pay for all his other living expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOnce I move, I won\u2019t be able to survive off just that and I\u2019ll have to work more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Austin this month got approved for a voucher and plans to move into a rooming house in Washington Heights, where he will have his own room but will share a kitchen and bathroom with others.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like the idea of it because even in the shelter I have my own bathroom, but I gotta get out of there,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m at the point where I\u2019m ready to accept whatever I can.\u201d<\/p>\n The bills passed by the City Council in 2023 \u2014 now being challenged in court by the Mamdani administration, a continuation of the Adams-era approach \u2014 expanded the eligibility for vouchers, allowing the required income level to rise and making people facing eviction eligible, too, along with people already living in shelters. Under the law, people earning up to 50% of the federally-designated Area Median Income \u2014 about $56,700 for an individual and $81,000 for a family of four \u2014 would qualify.<\/p>\n If those new rules went into effect, the average eligibility rate in the seven shelters run by Volunteers of America would shoot up from about a third to about three-quarters. At Win, about a third of the clients currently not eligible for CityFHEPS would become eligible.<\/p>\n Austin said he would\u2019ve qualified for the CityFHEPS voucher when he was working full time, if only the expanded program was in place.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating and it\u2019s unfair,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would\u2019ve been more money I could\u2019ve brought in and saved. Just because I\u2019m in a shelter didn\u2019t mean I didn\u2019t have family obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n In particular, he said expenses sometimes crop up related to his grown children and grandchild.<\/p>\n As Mamdani faces a budget gap of over $5 billion<\/a>, his administration has not only pushed back against the law expanding the program but floated scaling it back<\/a> to save money.<\/p>\n In a statement, mayoral spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said, \u201cMayor Mamdani has been clear that CityFHEPS is an invaluable tool to prevent homelessness and support homeless New Yorkers. That is why our team is working hard to ensure that it is fiscally sound and sustainable for the long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n The current program\u2019s cost has ballooned from about $26 million in 2019 to over $1.8 billion this year. The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development projected the cost to grow to over $3 billion annually by 2030 \u2014 for a total cost of $12.6 billion<\/a> between now and 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Homeless](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/020526_homeless_cold-2.jpg\")
Homeless New Yorker Tiffany Rosario keeps warm in Midtown with her service dog while she has to be out of her shelter during the day, Feb. 5, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n