Mayor Adams, NYC lawmakers face off after Council passes housing voucher expansion

The New York City Council passed a series of bills that would expand the Big Apple’s housing voucher system by veto-proof margins on Thursday in the face of stiff opposition from Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration claimed the measures would do “significant harm to the most vulnerable.”

The package passed by a vote 🐠of 41-7, well above the 34 vote threshold to override a veto.

Onceꦉ signed into law, it will end a provision that requires people to stay in a shelter for 90 days before bꦉecoming eligible for a voucher.

Lawmakers and advocates have long argued that nixing the three-month waiting period would help free up beds in the shelter system to make more space for migrants and they’ve argued it would save money, since the vouchers are less expensive than shelter stays.

But Mayor Adams’ administration estimates that the bills will cost more than $17 billion over the next five years, and could make it harder for homeless New Yorkers to seꦿcure a voucher by forcing them to compete with people who already have homes.

“Why would you want to pay for 90 extra days for a person to stay in shelter when it’s so expensive,” said Councilwoman Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan/the Bronx), the chairwoman of the general welfare committee, a key sponsor of the bill. “You would think that would not only be very simple to explain but also to accept.”

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She added: “The rhetoric that we’ve heard in the last few days has been really heartbreaking and infuriating because it boils down to poverty shaming.”

The showdown between City Hall and the Council is the latest example of the deepening rift between Hizzoner and lawmakers, who are locked in battles over Adams’ handling of the homelessness and migrant crises amid contentious n𝓀egot𒁏iations over the proposed $106 billion municipal budget.

“It would really be unfortunate if the Mayor chose to veto the bills that help New Yorkers leave the shelter system,” said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens), during her regularly scheduled press conference before the votes.

“We’ll cross that bridge if and when we get there.”

City Hall lashed out at lawmakers in a statement after the vote, calling the measures “an attempt to force a tax increase.”

“To build a stronger city, we must connect more New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to housing, but these bills would stymie and effectively halt that process, something New Yorkers experiencing homelessness cannot afford,” said Press Secretary Fabien Levy.

“We are reviewing our options.”

The package would also allow New Yorkers at risk for an eviction to apply for a hous🗹ing vouche🐠r and would bar landlords from deducting the cost of utility bills from a voucher.

The shelter system has become a flash-point in the sprawling fight between the lawmakers and Adams as its population has swelled to more th🧸an 81,000 in large part due to the waves of migrants from the southern border over the last year.

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Those figures do not count another 12,000 recent arrivals staying in emergency facilities run by the city’s public hospitals corporation, which would bring the total to 93,000.

F💛amilies with children account for the majority of people housed in the system, according to the most recent city statistics.

Their average stay in a shelter is 534 days — more than a year and a half.

At one point, the Adams administration promised to enact a series of reforms to speed the housing application process for New Yorkers in shelters but later backtracked, leaving lawmakers and homeless advocates frustrated and infuriated.

The Adams administration pushed back hard against the measure and released a remarkable statement just hours before the vote from Department of Social Services commissioner Molly Park, which claimed the bills “would do significant harm to the most vulnerable unhoused New Yorkers.”

Park argued in the statement the changes would mean that “tens or even hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who are not homeless or at risk of becoming homeless” could now qualify for the vouchers.

And she said that lawmakers had ignored an administration counter-proposal that wou♔ld have lifted the 90-day wait, but only for families with children.

The lawmakers and homeless advocates dispute the administration’s math, pointing out that the vouchers h🃏ouse families much more cheapl♔y than the shelter system can do.

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Housing a family in a shelter for three months costs taxpayers roughly $17,000, while a voucher would cost $7,400, according to figures compiled by ♋the Council.

“This package of bills will really be a tremendous benefit,” said Christine Quinn, the former Council speaker who now runs the homeless services provider WIN.

“Now, they’re going to be able to look for housing from their first day at shelter.”