NEW YORK CITY, NY – Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Molly Wasow Park recently announced a historic milestone in moving New Yorkers from homeless shelters to permanent homes. Since the abolishment of the 90-day length-of-stay rule, more than 500 additional households have been approved for City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) housing vouchers.
https://twitter.com/nycgov/status/1678837707319934976
Two weeks ago, Mayor Adams signed an emergency order to eliminate the rule, a prerequisite that required New Yorkers in shelters to stay for 90 days before becoming eligible for CityFHEPS, the nation’s largest city-funded rental assistance program. The removal of this rule meant immediate eligibility for over 500 households that would have otherwise needed to wait for 90 days.
Under Mayor Adams’ administration, record numbers of households have been connected to CityFHEPS this year, showing a 17 percent year-over-year increase in shelter-to-permanent housing placements. The number of households exiting shelters for permanent housing during the Fiscal Year 2023 has grown by approximately 17 percent, compared to Fiscal Year 2022, totaling nearly 15,000 households.
“Our efforts are working: We’ve increased shelter-to-permanent-housing placements 17 percent year over year, connected a record number of households to CityFHEPS vouchers this year, and, in the weeks since eliminating the 90-day rule, made over 500 households who would have had to wait until their 90 days passed already eligible for CityFHEPS,” Mayor Adams said.
The Adams administration also continues to handle an unprecedented asylum seeker crisis, largely on its own. Despite an affordable housing vacancy rate ranging between 1 and 5 percent, the administration is focused on expediting new housing production and advancing development projects across the city’s five boroughs. Mayor Adams is also calling on the state to act on a new affordable housing incentive program.
