A new city voucher helps cover rent for people facing eviction or homelessness

This law creates a new city rent voucher, run by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Most households would contribute 30% of adjusted income, with different calculations for households receiving public assistance. The city would pay the covered balance up to the program’s rent limit; a household could owe more if its rent exceeds that limit.

Households must earn no more than half the area median income—$84,800 for four people in 2026—and fit one of three groups. They can be rent-stabilized tenants named in a pending nonpayment eviction case; residents of shelters run outside DSS or HRA; or residents of DSS or HRA shelters whose income is above 200% of the federal poverty level or who do not meet CityFHEPS work rules. Under proposed rules, agencies, shelter providers, or contracted legal-services groups would refer households, and HPD could use a waiting list. Half of annual funding is reserved for the eviction group and half for the shelter groups.

Pierina Sanchez prime-sponsored the bill, with Carl Wilson as co-sponsor. After months of negotiations, Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani reached a deal: the FY2027 budget added $175 million for the new program, the administration agreed to drop its appeal over the Council’s 2023 CityFHEPS laws, and the Council passed the bill 51–0. It became law without Mamdani’s signature. The adopted budget separately assumed savings from CityFHEPS and shelter cost controls, but the Comptroller found total FY2027 rental-assistance funding was still 14% above projected FY2026 costs.