The legislation, introduced in Albany by Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz and State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, would prohibit policies that restrict the length of homeless shelter stays—aimed at halting the Adams administration’s 30 and 60-day shelter notices for newly arrived immigrants.
The city’s housing vacancy rate plunged to 1.41 percent in 2023, the lowest it has been since 1968, officials announced Thursday. Options were particularly scarce for low-income New Yorkers: just 0.39 percent of units renting for under $1,100 were available last year.
The New York City Council cleared Speaker Adrienne Adams to take legal action on its behalf Thursday, but the leader declined to say how, or when, she might act to enforce new laws expanding eligibility for city-issued rental vouchers.
“It looks like a coughing choir in that tent,” said Luis Zambrano, 62, who came down with pneumonia this winter while staying at the shelter complex on Randall’s Island, where the city has been housing thousands of newly arrived immigrants. “The cold that passes through and under the cot doesn’t go away with several blankets, so you are always cold sleeping.”
The first four months of Fiscal Year 2024 saw timely processing of just 14.3 percent of cash assistance applications—a new low—and 41.6 percent of SNAP applications. Delays can have serious consequences for applicants, from hunger to missed rent payments that can put families at risk of eviction.
“Black New Yorkers are disproportionately affected by homelessness, making up 58 percent of shelter residents; 80 percent of the workers caring for these individuals are women of color, yet the top ranks of the organizations that employ them and set organizational policies are overwhelmingly white.”
In his annual address Wednesday, his third since taking office in 2022, Mayor Eric Adams touched on plans for a “Tenant Protection Cabinet,” developing affordable housing on two dozen city-owned sites, and issuing new NYCHA Section 8 vouchers. But several advocates said the speech fell short in addressing the city’s homelessness crisis.
“Instead of 100,000 migrants by mid-2024, we expect to care for 80,000 by June and 90,000 by the end of the year,” Mayor Eric Adams said while unveiling his budget Tuesday, saying a combination of strict limits on immigrant shelter stays and “reticketing” efforts to move immigrants to locations outside the city helped drive that estimate down.
In a Tuesday letter, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said the Department of Social Services has until Feb. 7 to begin implementing CityFHEPS voucher bills or her body will have “no other option” but to take legal action.
The governor’s State of the State address will include proposals to discourage landlords—and insurance companies—from business practices rooted in anti-voucher bias.
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