The city would save tens of millions of dollars by eliminating a rule that requires homeless New Yorkers to live in shelters for three months before they become eligible for permanent housing vouchers, says a new study.
The findings come as the City Council is considering scrapping the so-called 90-day rule on housing voucher eligibility after growing impatient with Mayor Adams’ reluctance to repeal it on his own, sources tell the Daily News.
The decades-old rule requires people to live in homeless shelters for 90 days before they can start applying for CityFHEPS vouchers, which help low-income people move into apartments by heavily subsidizing their rent.
For a family of three, staying in a regular homeless shelter for 90 days costs the city an average $16,920, according to an analysis by Win, the city’s largest family shelter operator.
Emergency hotel shelters are far more expensive — it costs the city $34,470 to house a family of three in one for 90 days, says Win’s study, the results of which were shared with The News ahead of its release this week. Emergency hotel shelters have become more common in the city over the last year.
By contrast, the average cost to the city for a 90-day CityFHEPS voucher for a family of three is $6,480, Win’s analysis found.
Eliminating the 90-day rule could thereby save the city $10,440 from its cost for a regular shelter for a family of three — and $27,990 from the cost of an emergency hotel shelter, the Win study found.
Beyond saving money, Christine Quinn, a former City Council speaker and Win’s CEO, said lifting the 90-day rule would result in more families leaving shelters sooner, freeing up beds for asylum seekers — thousands of whom Adams’ administration is struggling to house as the local migrant crisis deepens.
“We knew the rule wastes time and keeps people in shelter longer than they need to be, but now it shows we would also save money, create better living situations for people and create space in shelters for migrants,” Quinn. “It’s a win-win.”
Though it’s hard to calculate an exact dollar figure because of variables like family sizes and shelter types, Quinn said her group’s study shows there’s “easily tens of millions of dollars to be saved” from undoing the 90-day rule.
Adams spokeswoman Kate Smart told The News that City Hall will review Win’s study upon release, but would not immediately say whether its findings could motivate the mayor to get rid of the rule.
Smart did note that Adams enacted CityFHEPS reforms last year, including repealing a policy that used to require people to stay in shelters for four months before they could be evaluated for permanent housing options.
“We continue to strengthen tenant protections and rehousing supports for housing insecure New Yorkers through a wide range of programs and remain committed to building on these efforts,” she said.
Quinn and other homeless advocates have for years called on mayors to roll back the 90-day rule, which was first implemented under the Giuliani administration.
In a November press conference about CityFHEPS, Adams — who has made allocating budget savings a key focus — said “everything is on the table” when asked if he’d be willing to end the rule, which he can do by the stroke of a pen.
But since then, there’s been little momentum in negotiations between the Council and Adams’ office, according to two Council sources familiar with the matter.
To that end, the sources said the Council is working on in coming weeks passing a bill introduced by Bronx Councilwoman Diana Ayala that would eliminate the 90-day rule.
“It appears the Council is on track to pass this at the next stated,” one of the sources said, referring to the chamber’s full meeting on May 25.
Ayala, who chairs the Council’s General Welfare Committee, did not want to make a commitment about May 25. “But I am confident that we’re going to pass it before the end of session,” said Ayala, whose bill is already co-sponsored by half of the Council’s members.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who controls the chamber’s legislative agenda, said at a Thursday press conference she also believes repealing the 90-day rule would free up shelter space for migrants.
“Instead, we’ve seen a refusal to eliminate the 90-day rule for housing voucher eligibility, a lack of adequate focus to move New Yorkers out of shelter,” she said of the mayor. “The reality is that if the city doesn’t help move people out of shelters, then all we are doing is growing our shelter system on an emergency basis. That inevitably costs us more.”
Smart, the Adams rep, would not comment on Ayala’s bill.
Bills that pass the Council automatically become law if the mayor does not sign them within 30 days. The mayor has the power to veto bills, though.
Win’s study only focuses on family shelters, and does not explore whether savings could be generated from doing away with the 90-day rule as it relates to congregate shelters for single adults.
The reason the study does not put an exact dollar figure on estimated savings is in part because it’s unclear how many of the 15,266 families who were reported living in the city shelter system as of this past Wednesday are eligible for CityFHEPS.
Another issue Win’s study does not take into account is recent delays in processing of CityFHEPS vouchers. The delays have been attributed to staffing shortages at the Human Resources Administration, which issues the vouchers, and an uptick in demand that started during the pandemic.
A recent study from the fiscally hawkish Citizens Budget Commission found the mounting CityFHEPS demand could jeopardize the program’s long-term sustainability and recommended supplementing its budget with federal and state funds.
Quinn did not address the long-term concerns, but said beefing up Human Resources Administration staffing must also be a priority for Adams.
“That’s something that must be fixed,” she said.
