Rockland Responds To NYC Housing Vouchers Plan With EO

NEW CITY, NY — In response to New York City allowing city-issued housing vouchers to be used statewide by low-income residents, Rockland County Executive Ed Day signed a new emergency order.

The new order prohibits an outside municipality — such as New York City — from operating social services housing without a license granted by Rockland County. Additionally, landlords cannot participate in a social services housing program operated by an outside municipality without a license granted by Rockland.

Day said the county already has a housing crisis so extreme that it’s been unprecedently deputized by the state of New York to oversee building and fire code enforcement in the village of Spring Valley.

“It is my duty to protect the general welfare of anyone in the county or coming to the county both long-term and short-term and this new order ensures that,” he said.

“Lifeboats are a great tool to rescue people, but a lifeboat can only rescue so many,” Day said. “If you put too many people in one eventually, it’s going to capsize.”

Mayor Eric Adams announced Sept. 26 that City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement vouchers, or CityFHEPS, can be used to pay for permanent housing across the state. The move was directly tied to the city’s dual crises of housing and more than 100,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in the past year.

The mayor said the vouchers will give longtime New Yorkers the chance to move out of the city’s shelter system to other parts of the state that have more affordable housing options. That, in turn, would open up space in the city’s shelters for the thousands of migrants continuing to arrive each month.

Day, on the other hand, said that the county doesn’t believe that many low-income New York City residents will be able to afford to move to Rockland due to the already high cost of housing in the county.

Licenses granted by Rockland County will enable his administration to make sure no current tenants are evicted for the NYC program. They will also ensure that the housing selected is safe and appropriate and is contingent on the outside municipality providing funding to offset the additional costs this program will have on residents, localities, schools and more, the county executive said.

Rockland County Attorney Tom Humbach said the executive order’s sole purpose is mandating good and responsible government that supports current and future residents.

“The city of New York must comply with this order and cannot unilaterally deport its impoverished without cooperating with the county by securing a license,” he said.

Violation of the order, the county said, is a misdemeanor carrying up to a $5,000 penalty per violation per day. For municipal corporations, a civil penalty may be assessed for violations of the order up to $50,000 per violation per day.