Mayor Adams launches housing package to assist New Yorkers

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has launched a new housing package to help New Yorkers.

The mayor stated that the package will assist the New Yorkers to exit the shelter system – or avoid it entirely.

According to him, it will enable them to move more quickly into permanent affordable housing, including in higher-income neighborhoods that have long been out of reach for lower income families.

Adams noted that the reforms include significant improvements to the City Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) housing voucher program that will ensure more New Yorkers are eligible for the program and make the voucher more flexible and easier to use.

Part of the initiative is a groundbreaking pilot program – “Street to Housing” – that will place New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness directly into supportive housing; and a major expansion of the city’s housing mobility program, which helps families with federal housing vouchers access apartments in more neighborhoods across the five boroughs.

“Our administration is tackling this crisis head-on by focusing on moving New Yorkers into stable, high-quality, affordable housing. That’s what will define success for this administration, and that’s what these reforms are about,” said Mayor Adams.

“Like our housing blueprint, these changes were informed by those with lived experience of homelessness and on the front lines of this crisis. And today, we’re starting a major effort to fast-track New Yorkers in need to permanent housing and getting stuff done for those who need help the most.”

Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz stated, “When we released the Adams administration blueprint, Housing Our Neighbors, we promised to put people over paperwork, and that’s what you’re seeing today.”