Mayor Adams overhauls NYC's rental assistance program - New York Daily News

Mayor Adams announced a big of reforms to the city’s reddish tape-ridden rental assistance programme connected Monday — but stopped abbreviated of scrapping a decades-old regularisation that lodging advocates accidental curtails entree to the program.

In a property league astatine City Hall, Adams and his apical lodging advisers said the reforms volition marque it easier to payment from the alleged CityFHEPS voucher program, which heavy subsidizes monthly rent costs for immoderate categories of low-income New Yorkers.

For starters, the medication is expanding eligibility by making CityFHEPS vouchers disposable to immoderate azygous big moving a full-time minimum wage job, careless of whether their income is somewhat higher than 200% of the national poorness level, Adams said. Currently, lone those earning beneath 200% are eligible.

[ NYC bureaucracy kept qualified stateless retired of thousands of vacant apartments ]

The metropolis is besides reducing the magnitude of wealth CityFHEPS-eligible New Yorkers indispensable lend toward their rent for single-room occupancy units, capping it astatine $50 per month, Adams said. At the moment, CityFHEPS beneficiaries successful that class indispensable spot successful 30% of their income.

Among the different reforms rolled retired by Adams is simply a proviso that shaves the fig of hours families are required to enactment play to beryllium eligible for CityFHEPS from 30 to 14 hours, arsenic good arsenic a caller subsidy that covers the outgo of flat exertion fees for stateless structure residents.

“It’s wide that the lodging situation is this large knot that sits astatine the halfway of galore of problems that the metropolis is facing,” Adams told reporters. “We indispensable untangle those knots that are preventing radical from getting into housing.”

New York City Mayor Adams announces steps to assistance New Yorkers entree lodging much rapidly with reforms to CityFHEPS lodging voucher programme astatine City Hall successful little Manhattan, New York connected Monday, November 14, 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

However, 1 knot successful the CityFHEPS bureaucracy that was not addressed successful Monday’s announcement is the alleged 90-day rule.

The rule, which was archetypal implemented by Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration, mandates that radical enactment a minimum of 90 days successful a city-run structure earlier becoming eligible to use for CityFHEPS.

Housing advocates person agelong decried the regularisation arsenic arbitrary, portion arguing that lifting it would velocity up the process of getting New Yorkers retired of the structure system, which saw its colonisation reach an all-time high past month.

Asked wherefore he’s not repealing the 90-day rule, Adams acknowledged lodging activists urged him to bash so, but said his medication is inactive examining the imaginable budgetary interaction of specified a argumentation shift. He didn’t regularisation retired eliminating the request successful the future, though.

“We’re going to look astatine that also, truthful everything is connected the table,” helium said.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Bronx Councilwoman Diana Ayala, who chairs the Council’s General Welfare Committee, called the mayor’s Monday announcement “important” — but highlighted the deficiency of enactment connected the 90-day rule.

“The request to region the 90-day in-shelter request to get CityFHEPS rental vouchers remains and indispensable beryllium confronted,” the 2 Council Democrats said successful a statement. “As a city, we indispensable absorption connected each indispensable actions to assistance radical unafraid the harmless and unchangeable lodging they need.”

Also successful the bundle of reforms unveiled by Adams is simply a aviator programme that volition link 80 New Yorkers surviving connected the streets with placement successful supportive lodging units. The “Street to Housing” aviator volition beryllium connected a archetypal come, archetypal service basis, according to Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins.

Adams said the metropolis could grow the aviator beyond the archetypal 80 people. But helium said his medication needs to archetypal behaviour much probe into the alleged “housing first” concept, which has been adopted by immoderate different U.S. cities, including Houston.

Kathleen Cash, a stateless advocator with the Safety Net Project, said the aviator is simply a “positive step,” but questioned the mayor’s statement for much research.

“No 1 needs much probe oregon ‘pilot projects’ to amusement that ‘housing-first’ works — the disposable probe is broad and readily available,” she said.

Cash besides noted that the metropolis has hundreds of supportive lodging units sitting empty.

“There are superior actions the metropolis tin take, that it has powerfulness over, to capable those units. They’ve simply refused to,” she said earlier taking a changeable astatine Adams’ arguable crackdown connected thoroughfare stateless encampments: “Instead, the city’s main strategy for intervening successful thoroughfare homelessness person been the 1,500+ sweeps that determination the astir susceptible retired of show and marque it ever harder for them to really exit homelessness.”