Mayor Ends 90-Day Wait For Rental Vouchers Amid Housing Bill Spat

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Eric Adams ended the city's 90-day wait for homeless New Yorkers to apply for rental vouchers — a move that both fulfilled a long-held goal of advocates and could ultimately be an end-run around wider housing reforms.

Adams signed an emergency action Friday that suspends the city's rule requiring city dwellers to stay in shelters for three months before they're eligible for City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement — or CityFHEPS — rental assistance vouchers.

"Removing this rule will help even more people into permanent housing as quickly as possible," he said.

A wide range of advocates and elected officials agree with Adams that eliminating the so-called "90-day rule" will help unhoused New Yorkers find lasting homes.

But Adams' action appears to also be a not-so-subtle tactic against a package of City Council bills.

The bills passed by Council in May over Adams' objections would also away with the 90-day rule, along with vastly expanding eligibility for the vouchers.

By issuing the executive order on the 90-day rule, Adams appears to be setting up a potential veto of the bills, which he argues would cost the city $17 billion.

He repeatedly dodged questions Friday on whether he would veto the bills, even as he called aspects of them problematic.

“The team is still deciding how we’re going to move forward on the entire package,” he said.

Adams and city officials Friday morning tried to shift focus back to common ground over the 90-day rule.

City Hall officials paired the mayor's action with a release brimming with endorsements for ending the 90-day rule from high-profile advocates, including Christine Quinn, president and CEO of Win, the largest shelter provider for families in the city.

But Quinn, in a separate statement, went farther and backed the Council bills.

"If we truly want to break the cycle of homelessness in New York, Mayor Adams must immediately sign these bills into law," she said. "Homeless families deserve nothing less."

Milton Perez, a leader with VOCAL-NY's Homelessness Union, didn't pull any punches in a statement of his own.

"The fact that this Mayor would consider vetoing legislation, but adopt changes to the 90-day rule — something that he could have done in his first days in office — proves that this move is a petty, political distraction," he said. "This Mayor is not serious about getting folks into permanent housing and keeping them there."