{"id":848766,"date":"2026-06-06T15:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/848766\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:44:06","slug":"keep-your-promise-why-nyc-housing-advocates-want-mamdani-to-fund-not-fight-billion-dollar-cityfheps-voucher-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/848766\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Keep your promise\u2019: Why NYC housing advocates want Mamdani to fund, not fight, billion-dollar CityFHEPS voucher expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Housing advocates and City Council members rallied Thursday in front of City Hall to once again<\/a> demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani fulfill a campaign promise to follow through with the expansion of a critical, but costly, housing voucher program.<\/p>\n

The City Council approved several laws expanding the number of New Yorkers eligible for the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) in 2023, overriding then-Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 veto \u2014 but the new rules have been held up in court battles initiated first by the Adams\u2019 administration and continued by the Mamdani City Hall<\/a>, despite campaign promises to the contrary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the center of the debate is cost. Advocates maintain that funding permanent housing for New Yorkers living in shelters or facing eviction will result in budgetary savings, but the administration has postponed implementing the expansion, saying that the vital housing voucher system needs reforms to minimize the immediate ballooning costs in favor of program longevity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council Member Pierina Sanchez (D-Bronx), who chairs the council\u2019s Committee on Housing and Buildings, told protesters that 25,000 evictions could have been avoided had the CityFHEPS expansion laws been enforced.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day that this appeal continues, more families are unnecessarily pushed into crisis,\u201d Sanchez said.\n<\/p>\n

The 2023 expansions seek to ease work requirements for voucher recipients, increase the maximum income limits and allow those facing eviction to qualify for vouchers.\u00a0Analyses by the\u00a0Citizens Budget Commission<\/a>, however, indicated that the housing voucher program is not cost-effective in the long term, given the five-year timeline of vouchers relative to the average shelter stay of 15 months.<\/p>\n

Still another analysis by the Independent Budget Organization (IBO)<\/a> noted that the program had been chronically underbudgeted, at times doubling its projected expenditures by the end of the year. However, the IBO\u2019s analysis also noted key gaps in available data for the program, which could provide a much clearer picture of its financial realities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CityFHEPS was born in 2019 at a cost of $25 million; however, within six years, the city\u2019s costs for the voucher program ballooned to over $1 billion amid the ongoing affordability crisis.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Shelter providers and housing advocates disputed assertions that CityFHEPS is ineffective and too costly. Leading shelter and supportive housing provider, Win released an analysis<\/a> finding that the city could have saved over $1 billion by investing in the CityFHEPS expansion when it was passed in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The analysis attributed these savings to a cheaper per diem cost than temporary housing as well as shelter reductions that the organization said the city missed out on by not expanding the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the Mamdani administration, said that City Hall was working on creating a financially sound housing voucher program to support vulnerable New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani has been clear that this Administration believes that CityFHEPS is a lifeline for thousands of New Yorkers leaving the shelter system and seeking stable housing,\u201d Rauschenbach said in a statement. \u201cAs the stewards of CityFHEPS, and as an administration that firmly believes in its purpose, we want to protect it by placing it on firm financial footing. That is why we are pursuing major reforms that protect the program\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unaffordable wait for CityFHEPS voucher help<\/p>\n

New Yorkers who have spent time in the city\u2019s shelter system said that funding for CityFHEPS can\u2019t wait. Kadisha Davis, a mother in the peer-led organization Family Action Board, spent over a year in the city\u2019s shelter system with her daughter. She called the experience \u201ctraumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us like myself\u2014I paid into the system since I was 14\u2014taking out taxes, but when I need your help, you neglected me and my family? That\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KadishaKadisha Davis, who was formerly in the NYC shelter system with her daughter said that conditions were \u201ctraumatic\u201d and that taxpaying New Yorkers deserved dignified housing. Photo by\u00a0Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019 experience is not uncommon. A frequent criticism of the housing voucher program was its narrow requirements to qualify for city assistance. Lawmakers in the council pointed to the rising costs of living as evidence of the voucher expansion\u2019s urgency.<\/p>\n

Council Member Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn) said that funding for CityFHEPS should be a mandate in the new budget.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be immoral for us not to have a significant expansion of CityFHEPS if we tried to pass a council budget,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cThe cost of living has not gone down, the cost of rent has not gone down, the cost of groceries has not gone down, utilities haven\u2019t gone down. So what the hell are we doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CouncilCouncil Member Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn) told protesters that she didn\u2019t think it would be moral to pass a city budget without increases to the city\u2019s CityFHEPS housing voucher budget. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

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