City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams threatened to sue Mayor Eric Adams’ administration if it does not take “concrete, verifiable steps” to implement several laws expanding access to city housing vouchers by Feb. 7, according to a Jan. 9 letter reviewed by amNewYork Metro.
The move further escalates an ongoing tit-for-tat between the mayor and the council over the package of legislation, which the mayor opposes due to their price tag.
In the missive, Speaker Adams takes city Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Molly Wasow Park to task for the administration’s refusal to implement three laws passed by the council last year to expand the voucher program — known as CityFHEPS.
“DSS’s refusal to enforce duly enacted laws passed by the council is unlawful and unacceptable,” the speaker wrote. “If DSS does not show it has taken concrete, verifiable steps to implement these local laws by Feb. 7, 2024, the council will have no other option but to take legal action.”
Speaker Adams’ letter follows council leadership floating the idea of taking legal action against City Hall when it became clear the mayor was refusing to implement the laws late last year.
The measures, which were supposed to be put into motion by the city on Tuesday, would greatly expand access to the housing vouchers by making them available to those facing eviction and to a wider-swath of low-income individuals. Previously, the vouchers were only available to those who were already homeless.
The legislation is aimed at helping more people who are on the brink of homelessness stay in their apartments as the city’s shelter population has ballooned and run out of space due to the migrant influx over the past year and half.
The Legal Aid Society, which represents the Coalition for the Homeless, also announced that it intends to file its own lawsuit in the coming weeks to force the city to implement the laws.
“The Adams Administration’s refusal to implement this common sense legislation has left us with no choice but to file litigation on behalf of the New Yorkers we represent who stand to benefit from these bills,” said Legal Aid attorney Robert Desir, in a statement. “With a burgeoning shelter population and evictions surging citywide, public health demands that the reforms be allowed to live up to their full intended promise.”
The speaker’s missive comes in response to a previous letter from Park telling the City Council that the administration has no intention of enacting the laws by the Jan. 9 deadline due to concerns over their cost and their workability. She also indicated City Hall was ready for the possibility of going to court.
Specifically, Park cited a $17 billion five-year price tag the administration projects the expansion would bear and claimed the measures would create increased competition among voucher holders for a limited number of apartments.
Park also argued the council does not have the legal standing to legislate on the vouchers because the program is overseen by the state government.
City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus responded to the suit in a statement insisting the bills could force the administration to make additional budget cuts, on top of the 15% it is already trimming across agencies’ fiscal plans.
“This legislation and its $17 billion price tag will make it harder for New Yorkers in shelter to move into permanent housing at a time when there are 10,000 households in shelter that are eligible for CityFHEPS and force more painful budget cuts onto working-class New Yorkers,” Mamelak Altus said.
The mayor is so vehemently opposed to the measures that he vetoed them last June — which in turn led the council to override his downvote and pass the bills over his protestations.
The council has repeatedly pushed back on the mayor’s arguments against the laws, including the city’s cost projection — with the council’s being far lower, at roughly $10 billion — and its contention that the council does not have authority to legislate on the CityFHEPS program.
The speaker argued that Park’s assertion that the laws are “preempted” by the state’s authority is a “misrepresentation” of the “statute, relevant case law, and the state constitution that vests policy-making authority in the council, not an administrative agency.” Additionally, she said the council has legislated on the CityFHEPS program in the past.
Prior to Speaker Adams sending the letter, Deputy Council Speaker Diana Ayala said she expects the administration will have a legal strategy at the ready but the council is not backing down from this fight.
“We’re not going to just sit here and allow the administration to continue to not only just credit the council but pretend that the policies that we’re passing, that they’re not law,” Ayala said. “They have a legal obligation to figure it out, and to figure it out with this body. And they’re not doing that.”
