NYC Housing Vouchers Now Will Pay Rent Anywhere In State: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — A New York City housing voucher now will pay for rent beyond the five boroughs.

Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday that City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or CityFHEPS, vouchers can be used to pay for permanent housing across the state.

The move is directly tied to the city's dual crises of housing and 110,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in the past year, he said.

"These reforms will give longtime New Yorkers the ability to move out of our city’s shelter system to other parts of the state with more affordable housing options, while simultaneously opening up space in our city’s shelter system for the approximately 10,000 migrants who continue to arrive in the city seeking shelter month after month," he said in a statement.

Housing advocates offered praise for the move, but it was quickly tempered by word that Adams administration officials had reportedly requested a change in a decades-old court order that established the city's right-to-shelter that guarantees a bed for single adults without a home.

The city has a week to submit its application, reported Emma Whitford of City Limits.

City Hall officials had signaled they'd request the change, and last week went through with another tweak that limited the time adult migrants can stay in shelters from 60 days to 30 days — a decision that advocates with The Legal Aid Society blasted as "arbitrary and devoid of compassion."

By contrast, the CityFHEPS change was hailed as the "definition of a win-win" by Christine Quinn, the president and CEO of WIN, the largest provider of housing and supportive services for homeless women and children.

"This policy will help New Yorkers find permanent, affordable homes from Buffalo Avenue in Brooklyn to the City of Buffalo in Western New York," Quinn said in a statement. "At the same time, it will provide stable income for landlords across the state and save the City millions of dollars in shelter costs."