A state appellate court ruled Thursday that Mayor Adams must move to enact a package of legislation that would expand access to the city’s rental assistance program, an initiative City Council proponents argue is critical amid a citywide housing crisis.
The legislative package, which was adopted by the City Council last year after the mayor unsuccessfully tried to veto it, would greatly increase access to CityFHEPS, a voucher program that heavily subsidizes rent for low-income New Yorkers.
Among other measures, the Council package would raise the income threshold for the program, make a rental demand from a landlord grounds for eligibility and abolish a rule requiring people to enter the homeless shelter system before they can apply for a voucher.
The mayor initially refused to implement the bills due to cost concerns, arguing it’d saddle the city with $17 billion in additional spending over five years, a figure disputed by Council Democrats.
After the Council sued him last year, the Adams’ administration contended in legal arguments that only the state, not the Council, could enact reforms of this kind, an argument a Manhattan Supreme Court judge sided with last August in a ruling that allowed the mayor to continue to hold off on implementing them.
On Thursday, a panel of six judges from the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division reversed the lower ruling, writing in a 13-page decision that the mayor’s claim that only the state has jurisdiciton on such an issue leans on “an absurd construction” of the law “that we must avoid.”
“Accepting the Mayor’s contention that the State has occupied the entire field of rental assistance would undermine the State policy of allowing for local input into rental assistance policy and intrude upon the City’s home-rule prerogative to have a say in matters pertaining to the health and well-being of its citizens,” the judges wrote.
The judges said the Adams administration must move forward with the laws, starting with making submissions about the program expansion to the state Office of Temporary and Disability, which oversees many of New York’s welfare programs.
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
Activists gather at a rally in Manhattan in February urging Mayor Eric Adams to implement legislation passed by the city council to reform CityFHEPS, a housing voucher program. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
The mayor could appeal the latest ruling to the state’s highest court, and spokeswoman Liz Garcia said his administration is “reviewing our legal options.”
Garcia noted there are still 13,000 households on the CityFHEPS voucher program waitlist, and that simply expanding eligibility won’t solve the problem.
“We must focus on them. Adding more vouchers will only make it harder for people to leave homeless shelters,” she said. “The affordable-housing crisis won’t be solved by making people compete for nonexistent housing; it will be solved by building more housing — which the Adams administration has done at record levels.”
Rendy Desamours, a spokesman for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, celebrated the appeallate court decision. “It is unfortunate that for two years Mayor Adams’ administration stood in the way of removing barriers to housing vouchers that keeps New Yorkers in their homes and moves them from shelters to permanent homes,” Desamours said.
The cost of housing has become a key issue in this year’s mayoral race, as skyrocketing rents and a dearth of apartments are putting immense pressure on low-income New Yorkers.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor who’s polling as the favorite to replace Eric Adams in City Hall next year, won last month’s primary after focusing his campaign on affordability issues.
Legal Aid Society attorney Robert Desir, whose group brought the CityFHEPS suit against the mayor together with the Council, said the appellate court ruling came at a “critical moment.”
“At a time when affordability remains one of the most pressing challenges in New York City, this decision marks a significant step toward a housing system that is accessible and fair for all,” he said.
