Deputy City Council Speaker Diana Ayala on Wednesday addressed the Council’s intention to pursue legal action to compel Mayor Eric Adams and his administration to implement expansions to the city’s housing voucher program, CityFHEPS, saying the expansions will dramatically cut costs for the city. 

“In order for you to qualify for CityFHEPS voucher now, you have to be in shelter. So, if you're an individual that's at risk, that has an apartment that's in court right now facing eviction that would normally qualify, you would have to be evicted in order to qualify –which is more expensive, because now we're paying two, three times more than the cost of that rent for house you in temporary shelter,” Ayala said of the current program’s structure. 

She said that new reforms would allow people to stay in their current housing and “avoid people continuing to come into the system unnecessarily.” 

When asked to speculate why the mayor is so reluctant to implement the changes that were supposed to take effect in January, Ayala noted that the Adams administration has been concerned about costs and program abuse. 

“They've also made some very insensitive comments, alluding to the fact that folks would make themselves homeless or would stop paying rent in order to qualify for a CityFHEPS voucher, which is not only insulting, but it's also not factual,” she said. 

“There's a set of criteria that include very low income, and not everybody is going to qualify under that requirement. So, to make that argument to me is just really insulting,” Ayala added.