By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Molly Wasow Park on Tuesday provided an update on the city’s record progress connecting New Yorkers living in city shelters to permanent housing. The update follows Adams’ signing of an emergency order eliminating the longstanding 90-day length-of-stay requirement for New Yorkers in shelter to be eligible for City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) housing vouchers — the largest city-funded rental assistance program in the nation. Following the removal of the 90-day rule, over 500 households that would have otherwise been required to wait 90 days before becoming eligible for a housing voucher immediately became eligible for CityFHEPS, bringing them one step closer to finding permanent housing.
“Eliminating the 90-day rule has increased access to CityFHEPS vouchers,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “This, along with all the other efforts to create efficiencies in helping individuals and families move more quickly from shelter to stable housing, has shown promise with a record number of New Yorkers connected to CityFHEPS this past year. The administration will continue to explore every avenue to support individuals and families find a permanent home.”
Mayor Adams also on Tuesday announced progress made over the past year to move New Yorkers from shelter to permanent housing. Technology, staffing, process, and training improvements made at DSS have led to an approximately 17-percent increase in shelter exits to permanent housing during Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23), compared with Fiscal Year 2022 — a total of nearly 15,000 households in FY23. Additionally, more New Yorkers were connected to permanent housing using a CityFHEPS voucher during FY23 than in any year in the program’s history.
With more asylum seekers in the city’s care now than longtime unhoused New Yorkers, New York City continues to manage the unprecedented asylum seeker crisis largely on its own, and the Adams administration continues to build on progress to quickly move New Yorkers out of shelter and into permanent housing.
With a vacancy rate for affordable housing ranging between 1 and 5 percent, many New Yorkers have a difficult time finding an apartment. To address this issue, the Adams administration has focused on accelerating production of new housing and advancing development projects in neighborhoods around the five boroughs. Mayor Adams has also continued calls on the state to take action on a new affordable housing incentive program — easing conversion of vacant offices to housing and eliminating the cap on housing in Midtown Manhattan.
“In the last fiscal year, a record number of New Yorkers were able to utilize a CityFHEPS voucher to obtain affordable permanent housing. Since eliminating the 90-day rule, hundreds of additional households in shelter, who would have previously had to wait 90 days, have become eligible for CityFHEPS,” said DSS Commissioner Park. “We are moving more New Yorkers out of shelter and into safe, stable permanent housing because of the concerted efforts of this administration, and we remain laser-focused on building on these successes as we continue to focus our efforts on serving our most vulnerable neighbors.”
