A budget agreement between the mayor and City Council has been pushed back as the two sides of City Hall spar over funding for CityFHEPS, the city’s housing voucher program.
Council Speaker Julie Menin rallied with other city councilmembers and former Speaker Christine Quinn — who called Menin’s presence there “unorthodox” — to call for more funding for the program in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget. CityFHEPS subsidizes a portion of rent relief for New Yorkers who’d otherwise be homeless or facing eviction.
“We’ve been pretty clear about what we have been looking for, and that is around $300 million a year,” Menin said Friday. “That is something that we have been pushing for.”
The budget deadline is Tuesday, before the new fiscal year starts on July 1.
Councilmember Pierina Sanchez said at the City Hall rally that the “handshake deal” between the mayor and speaker could have been Friday, “but we have not gotten there.”
“How can we say we don’t have that money?” Councilmember Tiffany Caban said. “We got the money. When we have money to grow the police by 580, add $70 million to an already bloated budget, already costing us billions of dollars to fix broken windows?” Caban said, referring to Mamdani’s increase of the NYPD authorized headcount and enforcement of quality-of-life violations. “We could be putting those folks in housing.”
As a candidate, Mamdani pledged to expand eligibility for the program in accordance with laws passed by the City Council in 2023.
But as mayor, Mamdani has flip-flopped on the issue, now arguing the increasingly costly voucher program is not financially feasible given the city’s dire financial situation. City Comptroller Mark Levine has estimated costs could balloon to as much as $22 billion over five years. The Council is now seeking a settlement in the case it filed with the Legal Aid Society against the then-Adams administration.
“Mayor Mamdani has been clear that this Administration believes that CityFHEPS is a lifeline for thousands of New Yorkers leaving the shelter system and seeking stable housing,” Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for the mayor, said in a statement. “As the stewards of CityFHEPS, and as an administration that firmly believes in its purpose, we want to protect it by placing it on a firm financial footing. That is why we are pursuing major reforms that protect the program’s future.”
Sherif Soliman, director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, declined to answer questions from the Daily News about budget negotiations or CityFHEPS while walking out of City Hall Friday afternoon, simply saying the two sides are “always talking.”
The budget deadline nears after a banner week for the mayor. On Thursday, the Rent Guidelines Board voted to approve a rent freeze, one of Mamdani’s signature issues. And on Tuesday, the mayor’s slate of progressive and democratic socialist candidates swept their primary elections.
“What is the point of electing super progressives if they abandon the most needy in the most significant of ways in the city’s budget process?” Quinn said.