City Council to take mayor to court over rent vouchers

Cue the lawyers: The Adams versus Adams showdown is heading to the courts.

The City Council on Thursday voted to authorize legal action against Mayor Eric Adams in an effort to force the administration to expand the city’s housing voucher program.

Ahead of the vote, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said a final decision had not been made about suing but indicated that the vote would “keep our options open.”

The approved resolution allows the Council to file a lawsuit and indicates that the administration, which overrode the mayor’s veto of the voucher expansion, has left legislators with no alternative.

The Council speaker could bring her own case or join another. The Legal Aid Society is planning to sue to force the rollout of the voucher expansion, according to City Limits.

The vote is the latest escalation in a fight that began in June, when the mayor vetoed four bills approved by the Council the previous month. The administration has argued that the measures exceed the Council’s legal authority and will cost taxpayers many billions of dollars. The mayor has not implemented the bills’ changes.

One of the measures expands eligibility for the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, changing the maximum income from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 50 percent of the area median income. The income threshold for a family of four, for example, would increase to $70,600 from $60,000.

Another law repealed a rule that required individuals and families to spend at least 90 days in homeless shelters before they can apply for CityFHEPS. The mayor subsequently signed an executive order similar to that measure, but it added work requirements.

The other two measures expanded voucher eligibility to people at risk of homelessness or eviction and aimed to help low-income tenants pay utility bills.

Tensions between the mayor and the City Council are on the rise. Last month, the Council overrode two more of the mayor’s vetoes, upholding the How Many Stops Act, which requires police officers to document investigative street stops, and a measure to limit solitary confinement.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, the mayor touted the launch of a new program to house voucher holders currently living in city shelters. The program will help nonprofits buy or sign long-term leases for affordable housing, with a goal of providing 1,500 homes to voucher holders. The program’s cost was not immediately clear.

The administration estimates that the four measures will cost the city $17 billion in the first five years. The Council believes the cost will be $11 billion. The city’s budget this year is $107 billion.

The mayor says handing out more vouchers to New Yorkers not in shelters will increase competition for housing, making it more challenging for shelter residents to find apartments.

“It 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 thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive in our city every week,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement.

As for the cost, the spokesperson added, “This will only force more painful budget cuts onto working-class New Yorkers.”

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