NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday announced a package of major new housing reforms that will help New Yorkers exit the foster care system, or avoid it altogether, and move into housing more quickly.
This includes housing in high-income neighborhoods that have long been out of reach for low-income families in every county.
The reforms include significant improvements to the City’s Homeless and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) housing voucher program that will ensure more New Yorkers are eligible for the program and make the voucher more flexible and user-friendly; an innovative pilot program, “Street to Housing,” which will place homeless New Yorkers directly into supported housing; and a major expansion of the city’s housing mobility program, which helps families with federal housing stamps access apartments in more neighborhoods across the five boroughs.
Collectively, these reforms meet key commitments in “Hosting our neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness” by Mayor Adams, which refocused the city’s approach to homelessness by treating it as a housing issue.
This package also complements other key initiatives in the housing plan, including efforts to accelerate supportive housing creation, expand overall housing supply, and remove unnecessary barriers New Yorkers face in obtaining housing.
“Our administration is meeting this crisis head-on by focusing on relocating New Yorkers to high-quality, stable and affordable housing. That is what will define the success of this administration, and that is the purpose of these reforms,” Mayor Adams said. “Like our housing plan, these changes were informed by people with lived experience of homelessness and on the front lines of this crisis. And today, we’re starting a major effort to accelerate New Yorkers in need of permanent housing and make things happen to those who need help the most”.
The Adams administration will implement a package of reforms to the city-funded housing coupon program through the CityFHEPS program that will make coupons more affordable and easier to use more quickly.
Using $7 million in grants from Enterprise Community Partners and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the City of New York City’s Department of Housing Conservation and Development (HPD) will scale up its housing mobility efforts to reach 1,400 households by 2027, instead of 50 households in 2020.
HPD’s housing mobility programs support the ability of families to move to new neighborhoods with:
- Pre-move counseling, including credit counseling, banking, budgeting, saving, and identifying and resolving housing barriers;
- Support in finding housing, including payment of brokerage fees and assistance in identifying available apartments and attending showings;
- Financial assistance for public transport and moving expenses; Y
- Higher rent assistance payments to reflect market conditions (available to all HPD Section 8 voucher holders in eligible neighborhoods).
“With the announcement of this innovative reform package, it is clear that this administration is fully committed to meeting the housing needs of our most vulnerable New Yorkers,” said DSS Commissioner Gary P. Jenkins. “Housing is essential to stability, growth and prosperity, and all New Yorkers deserve a safe place to call home. With greater access to CityFHEPS vouchers and mobility assistance programs, more low-income New Yorkers will be able to get the permanent housing options they want and deserve in all parts of the city In addition, the Street to Housing pilot reaffirms our commitment to cutting red tape and fighting homelessness by placing New Yorkers homeless We are incredibly grateful to our partners at agency and real-world clients who have worked with helping us make these reforms and initiatives a reality, and we look forward to working together in the future to find more impactful ways to support New Yorkers.”
The new Street to Housing pilot program creates a direct path for homeless New Yorkers to access permanent supportive housing without going through the shelter system. This initial pilot project will connect up to 80 single adult clients with supportive housing. Once hosted, clients will be supported by an experienced non-profit provider partner, Volunteers of America Greater New York (VOA-GNY), as they apply from the very unit that could become their permanent home.
“These reforms give us new flexibility and additional tools to shorten the path for families and homeless people to move to safe, stable and affordable housing,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “Thank you to our interagency partners and our nonprofit partners for continuing to find new ways we can work together to achieve our goal of finding a permanent home for every New Yorker.”
