The new mayor had promised to expand the CityFHEPS rent assistance program to an additional 47,000 households.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pulling back on his campaign promise to expand the CityFHEPS rent assistance program, report Sally Goldenberg and Mihir Zaveri in The New York Times.
The $1 billion initiative offers vouchers to low-income residents to support rent payments. “About 65,000 households, representing 140,000 people, use the vouchers, according to city data. If the program were to be fully expanded, some 47,000 households would become newly eligible annually, potentially adding $17 billion in costs to the city over five years, according to a rough estimate from city budget officials in January 2024.”
The Mamdani administration is pursuing a settlement in a lawsuit that would allow the city to expand the program. However, the cost of the expansion means the program is growing “at an unsustainable clip,” according to Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan budget watchdog.
A report from WIN, NYC’s largest shelter provider, argues that it will be more expensive to house people who will become homeless than to invest in more housing vouchers, and that the expansion could save the city $635 over five years.
FULL STORY: Mamdani Reverses Campaign Promise to Expand Rental Assistance
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