Press Release: CSS Research Demonstrates the Importance of Protecting and Expanding CityFHEPS Voucher Program, as the Adams Administration Attempts to Weaken It

Press Release

CSS Research Demonstrates the Importance of Protecting and Expanding CityFHEPS Voucher Program, as the Adams Administration Attempts to Weaken It

At a time when the Trump Administration is prematurely ending the Emergency Housing Voucher program and threatening to dramatically defund all forms of federal rent relief, the Adams administration is failing to use City resources to keep low-income New Yorkers housed. Instead, they are redirecting promised funds to other purposes and pursuing regulatory changes to raise rent contributions for thousands of voucher holders. In two new research briefs, the Community Service Society of New York (CSS) demonstrates why this is misguided and makes the case for improving and expanding the city's primary rental assistance and program.

In the first brief, "No More Broken Promises: Commit City Funds to CityFHEPS in the Community," CSS revisits the commitments the Adams administration made to the City Council in order to secure their support for their City of Yes rezoning program. That set of commitments, known as "City for All," included a clear promise of $215 Million for CityFHEPS vouchers. Under the banner of "tenant protections," this money was supposed to go toward preventing eviction for low-income people at risk of homelessness. Instead, the Administration wants to use this money to cover the day-to-day funding of existing commitments-namely using CityFHEPS to get people out of shelters and into housing. The city is already required to fund the CityFHEPS program; it is not something the City Council would have to negotiate.

Alongside our coalition partners at The Legal Aid Society of New York, Coalition for the Homeless, VOCAL-NY, and Neighbors Together, we recommended that the promised $215 million be devoted toward an expansion of CityFHEPS into the community by prioritizing households who:

1. have a minor child (under 18), an elderly (over 62) person, or a disabled person; and
2. have household incomes that are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level; and
3. live in rent stabilized, rent controlled, Good Cause-eligible housing, or apartments financed by low-income housing tax credits; and
4. are currently being sued by their landlord in Housing Court; and
5. will use CityFHEPS to stay in their current apartment; and
6. have a current rent at or below the CityFHEPS rent levels.

Based on US Census Bureau and HUD data, we estimate that nearly 7,500 such households will face eviction in the coming year. The promised $215 million would be enough to keep nearly all of them housed for the next two years.

In our second brief, "The City's Rent Hike Plan for Voucher Holders Will Backfire", we explore the consequences of the Adams administration's proposal to raise rent contributions for thousands of CityFHEPS voucher-holders. Pitched as a cost saving measure, the administration recently proposed a rule change that would require that income-earning households who have used a CityFHEPS for five or more years pay go from paying 30 percent of their income in rent to 40 percent of income, making these low-income households officially rent burdened.

Using data from HRA, the US Census, and the Mayor's Management Report, we find that this rule change would be devastating to families, while producing little to no benefit for the city. We find that:

This rule change would raise the rent on nearly 30,000 formerly homeless individuals and families jeopardizing their ability to remain housed and healthy. The median annual rent hike would be $576 for single individuals and $384 for families with children.
In theory, this rule change would save the city $11million, or 0.01 percent of the city's budget. In reality, however, raising the rent will likely push many currently stable households toward eviction. The city would likely spend as much or more than these "savings" on One Shot Deals to keep these CityFHEPS voucher-holders housed. Yet if even one percent of single individuals or families return to homelessness as a result of this rent hike, all of the city's purported savings will go instead to sheltering the very people the rent hike evicted.

We urge the City Council to reject this proposed rule change, and we encourage the administration to rethink their misguided approach to rental assistance.

Issues Covered

Affordable Housing

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