Mayor Adams is expected to use executive authority to abolish a rule that requires low-income New Yorkers to stay in homeless shelters for at least 90 days before applying for city-funded rental vouchers, according to five municipal government sources familiar with the matter.
The planned executive action — which is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday — comes even as the City Council passed a package of bills last month that would scrap the so-called 90-day rule and enact some other reforms to the CityFHEPS rental voucher system.
However, Adams made clear after last month’s vote that he opposes most other components of the Council’s package, including a bill that would make people who receive written rent demands from their landlords eligible for CityFHEPS vouchers. Adams’ office says he’s opposed to the rest of the package due to concerns about the cost that would come with increasing voucher eligibility to that extent.
Three of the sources, who spoke with the Us.Mistertruth on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said they’ve been told Adams is opting for the executive action route in order to then veto the Council’s legislation.
“He’ll change the 90-day rule on his own … and then try to veto the rest of the package,” one of the sources said.
Fabien Levy, Adams’ press secretary, did not deny on Monday that a veto is forthcoming.
“No announcement is confirmed until we make it,” Levy said in a statement.
Bronx Councilwoman Diana Ayala, a Democrat who helped write the Council CityFHEPS reform package, said she’s pleased Adams “has finally decided to come around and support” the 90-day rule bill.
But Ayala said the Council won’t accept only doing away with the 90-day rule. She argued the other components of the package are equally as important and voiced confidence that the Council will have enough votes to override any veto Adams may issue.
“Is the mayor going to fight for counterproductive work requirements, like the Republicans in Washington who held the debt limit increase hostage, or fight against preventing New Yorkers from being evicted and ending up in shelters during eviction and homelessness crises?” Ayala said. “Our bills were solutions to these crises that this Administration should support and sign into law.“
In a sign that a veto could be cumbersome for Adams, 41 of the Council’s 51 members voted in favor of the CityFHEPS package last month. It takes the support of 34 members to override a mayoral veto.
Judith Goldiner, the attorney in charge of the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Law Reform Unit, shared Ayala’s sentiment and urged Adams to adopt the full package of bills.
“This should not supplant enacting the package of comprehensive CityFHEPS reforms recently passed by the Council that would improve housing stability for the thousands of New Yorkers who are experiencing or on the verge of homelessness,” said Goldiner, whose group serves as the city’s shelter system watchdog.
Council Democrats have maintained their rental voucher reform package is a win-win for the city at a time that Adams’ administration scrambles to find room to house the tens of thousands of migrants who’ve arrived since last spring.
By loosening eligibility rules around CityFHEPS, the Council Dems have argued homeless New Yorkers can be moved out of shelter and into permanent housing quicker — or avoid going into shelter altogether — freeing up space for migrants. They’ve also contended that the reforms may actually end up saving the city money, as the per-day cost of housing someone in a shelter is more expensive than the per-day cost of a CityFHEPS voucher.
Adams’ budget team has countered that the reforms would add $17 billion in cost to the city over the coming five years. The mayor and his advisers have also argued the reforms could backfire, as the eligibility expansion could result in a huge spike in demand, causing an application backlog.
“Since day one of this administration, Mayor Adams has worked to shelter New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and connect our city’s residents with more permanent housing,” Levy said in his statement. “The City Council’s package of bills, however, does the opposite — making it harder for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to exit shelter to permanent housing.”