Overridden, Overruled: City Council vote beats mayor’s CityFHEPS bills veto

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Housing and addressing the homelessness crisis has been a sore spot of contention between Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council. In their most recent battle last week, Speaker Adrienne Adams and the City Council held a majority vote of 42–8 to override the mayor’s attempt to derail the council’s City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) legislative package on July 13.

The bills include removing shelter stay as a precondition to eligibility for CityFHEPS, giving people the ability to demonstrate risk of eviction by presenting a rent demand letter, and changing the eligibility for vouchers from 200% of the federal poverty level to 50% of the area median income.

“New York City is in the midst of an intense eviction crisis that risks pushing more people into homelessness,” said Speaker Adams in a statement. “These bills are aimed at removing barriers faced by the lowest-income New Yorkers to accessing vouchers that can help them avoid losing their homes and becoming unhoused. During a time of record homelessness, it is critical that we respond with the urgency and strength needed to address the scale of this crisis.”

The contention stems from the asylum seeker crisis, where thousands of migrants have arrived in the city for the past year, and other compounded housing issues that put a substantial strain on the city’s resources and lowerincome individuals and families. Leadership can’t seem to agree about how to solve the problem.

Back in May, Mayor Adams filed an application controversially seeking “modification” and “relief” from the city’s long-held right-to-shelter law. A few days later, the City Council passed the CityFHEPS bills to remove barriers to voucher eligibility and rental assistance, immediately putting the mayor’s more reserved camp at odds with the more liberal council.

The bills were considered “vetoproof,” but Mayor Adams argued that the laws would do more harm than good and implemented his veto anyway on Friday, June 23. He did, however, agree with ending the 90-day city shelter stay eligibility mandate. In an op-ed for the Daily News, he explained that the other bills in the legislative package would cost the city “$17 billion over the next five years.”

By July, organizations like Women in Need (WIN), the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for homeless families, and the Community Service Society of New York (CSSNY) came out with their own cost projections for the

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