Administrative Barriers are Budget Cuts: VOA-GNY on Mayor Mamdani’s FY27 Executive Budget

Mayor Mamdani’s FY27 Executive Budget is a far cry from the promised expansion of the CityFHEPS program. Rather than funding duly passed and critically needed expansion laws, the budget raises additional hurdles that effectively cut rental assistance and make it even harder for people to leave shelter and secure stable housing.

An expanded and efficient CityFHEPS program must be at the core of a robust and inclusive affordability agenda, not at the periphery.

To ensure this, the City must move forward with implementing the 2023 package of laws designed to reduce barriers and ease administration, so more New Yorkers can avoid or escape homelessness. These laws are intended to ensure that homelessness is a rare, brief, and non-recurring phenomenon in New York City, and save working families teetering on the brink of eviction from the trauma of homelessness.

Despite assurances that the budget will not cut rental assistance, the Mayor’s proposed “management protocols” would introduce new bureaucratic hurdles and disincentives for landlords to accept voucher-holding prospective tenants, which will have the same impact as cutting rental assistance by making the program harder for people to use.

It already takes months for households with a CityFHEPS voucher to move into permanent housing, forcing people to stay in shelter for longer than necessary while the City incurs far greater shelter costs. CityFHEPS administration should focus on streamlining and expediting the application approval and lease-up processes, not adding new obstacles that further slow them down.

We strongly align with the Mayor’s view that CityFHEPS is an invaluable tool in addressing homelessness and that there is room to make the program more efficient and impactful. But, the treatment of CityFHEPS in this Executive Budget is a step in the wrong direction.

As stewards of the program, New York City must protect and strengthen CityFHEPS investments that make rental assistance more accessible and effective for the people who rely on it most.