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“CityFHEPS vouchers would give youth a real pathway out of homelessness, rather than forcing them into the adult homeless shelter system.”
Just months into his new administration, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is already letting down thousands of homeless youth in New York City by breaking his own campaign promises. For those of us who work with street homeless youth, we’re disappointed, but not surprised: because homeless youth are never a funding priority.
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani promised to expand the CityFHEPS (Fighting Homeless and Eviction Prevention Supplement) voucher program in alignment with laws passed by the City Council in 2023 that would widen eligibility. In addition to easing limitations around income and employment, the expansion would have let those residing in youth shelters finally become eligible for this lifesaving housing support. CityFHEPS vouchers are currently unavailable to youth shelter residents, as those systems are operated separately from the adult shelter systems.
But now, a mayor who ran on community safety and housing affordability is going back on his campaign promises, filing an appeal to overturn the court ruling by arguing that City Council was not authorized to expand the program in the first place.
A decade ago, homeless youth were promised imminent access to city housing vouchers through a program called LINC, the (Living in Communities) rental assistance program under the de Blasio administration. In that time, the City Council has twice passed legislation to give homeless youth equal access to housing vouchers, but the Adams and now the Mamdani administrations insist on fighting this expansion via litigation. Ten years later, we are still waiting.
CityFHEPS is one of the largest city-funded housing assistance programs in the nation. The program helps subsidize rent for people living below the poverty line and is instrumental in preventing homelessness, giving people a chance to get rental assistance, avoid eviction, and have a chance at stability.
In our current housing and economic crisis, every day is difficult for countless New Yorkers simply trying to feel safe and have a roof over their heads. But it is hardest for runaway and homeless youth on the street, who are already fighting to find safety in a city that does not provide enough age-appropriate shelter to meet the needs of its homeless youth. CityFHEPS vouchers would give youth a real pathway out of homelessness, rather than forcing them into the adult homeless shelter system.
Through Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project, I work with youth experiencing homelessness every day, where I see the astonishing resilience it takes for young people who are already carrying multiple forms of trauma to try and find their way in a city that overlooks them. For these young people, disappointment is not new.
Homeless youth without support become homeless adults. Studies have shown that when they have access to housing subsidies, young adults exiting the youth shelter system are two-thirds less likely to need shelter again. These housing subsidies will change lives. We desperately need to build pathways out of homelessness—and these vouchers would be instrumental in ensuring that our youth have a realistic chance at breaking the cycle.
Solutions for addressing homelessness have long excluded homeless youth, some of our most vulnerable populations on the street. We continue to overlook these young people in so many different ways—they are all around us, all the time, yet they have had to learn to blend in as a survival strategy. They are, for the most part, hiding in plain sight.
Mayor Mamdani, you may not see them, but we need you to, urgently. Because our youth need real action and kept promises—and to believe that someone is actually looking out for them.
Sebastien Vante is associate vice president of Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project.