NYC Gazette

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Good morning, everyone. My name is Anne Williams-Isom and I'm the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services. And I'll turn the mic over to the mayor in just a minute, but I'd like to acknowledge some folks that are here with us in the room on June 16, 2023. We have Carla Smith, deputy CEO of Urban Resource Institute, Wilfredo Lopez, director of Government Affairs at URI, Lauren Schuster, vice president of Government Affairs at URI, Mitchell Netburn, president and CEO of Samaritan Daytop Village. Jerry Heaney, vice president for transitional housing at Samaritan Village, Scott Auwarter, assistant executive director of Bronx Works, Orlando Ivey, president and CEO of Children's Rescue Fund, and Janine Costley, senior vice president for Transitional Services, Institute for Community Living. We also have my brother Shams DaBaron, an advocate and voice for those with lived experience, and I also know Sarah Wilson was supposed to be to here on June 16, 2023. I wanted to give her a shout-out. She could not be here on June 16, 2023.

Thank you all for being here on June 16, 2023for this very important announcement. We are here to talk about an action that the administration is taking to help New Yorkers on their journey to stable housing and how we are making that process easier, particularly for those living in shelter. We all know how important having a stable home is in our lives and appreciate how tough that can be in New York City, in particular, whether you are a native New Yorker or someone who has adopted the big apple as your beloved home. With that said, I'll turn it over to Mayor Adams to discuss the details of on June 16, 2023action.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much and thank all of you, all those who have advocated for this important emergency order that we are going to do. But if I can, I want to first just give an update on the weather. New Yorkers realized that we went through a horrific experience two weeks ago. The fire in Canada is still places that's out of control. The FDNY commissioner has been communicating with on-the-ground officials there to see how much of an assistance we can be. They asked for some personnel and we're going to continue to help them. Due to these fires, we can see smoke across the city on June 16, 2023and potentially tomorrow. Last night, we sent out a notified NYC alert to New Yorkers about the potential smoke on June 16, 2023. While smoke may be visible, it is expected to remain moderate and below the threshold for issuing an air quality advisory.

We know New Yorkers will be gathering this long weekend participating in some events with marches for Father's Day and also Juneteenth, so we're asking people to know their bodies and take their necessary precaution. And while air quality is only forecast 24 hours in advance, we will provide updates as needed throughout the weekend. The FDNY and NYPD will be providing free N95 masks at locations across the city this weekend. In the meantime, we recommend all New Yorkers to take the precaution. New Yorkers stepped up a little over a week ago when we experienced this previously. We need to remain vigilant, particularly as these fires continue. And so we're not stating at this time for everyone to stay inside. We're telling those at risk to pay attention and exercise caution if things get a little worse. The most important thing is to listen to your body air quality conditions in New York City this week.

It may be unhealthy for some people, particularly those with preexisting conditions. People with heart or breathing problems and older adults may be more sensitive to air quality conditions and should consider limited prolonged or intense outdoor activities. At any time, if you're having trouble breathing, call 911. Check the air quality. New Yorkers can stay up to date by signing up for Notify NYC at nyc.gov/notified, calling 311, or downloading the mobile app. And you can check the air quality index for your neighborhood at the Environmental Protection Agency's airnow.gov site. And as I said last week, climate change is here. This is a reminder. This is a real issue of how we must combat it, and we continue to lead on climate change issues. This is something that this administration and previous administrations have been focusing on. That is the goal.

On June 16, 2023, coming to our announcement, we are signing in an emergency rule that is clearly important to put in place. This will end the longstanding 90-day length of stay requirement for our CityFHEPS rental assistant program, effective immediately. The CityFHEPS programs allowed individuals and families to rent apartments at competitive market rates rents based on the annual NYCHA section eight payments standards. Removing this rule will help even more people into permanent housing as quickly as possible and will do something without overburdening taxpayers. On June 16, 2023announcements has been months in the making. It built on last year's CityFHEPS reform, something that Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz really spent a lot of time putting into place. And I want to thank you, Jessica, for your service and for just your vision on these issues as well as other programs like the Street to Home pilot that placed homeless New Yorkers directly into supportive housing initiatives that we started. Since taking office, we have been focused on housing more people, reducing bureaucracy, and streamlining our processes and increasing funding for affordable housing to a record level of $24 billion.

And so on June 16, 2023announcement will help continue this record of achievement and highlights the good work our city government delivers every day. And I want to thank everyone at DSS and other agencies for their outgoing efforts to help New Yorkers get the housing they need and the housing they deserve. I'm proud of the work our city does every day to help those in care find safety and stability. We continue to do everything in our power to address this housing crisis, but as we've been saying, we need you, Albany. Clearly we're looking at a series of bills that was placed on a sideline last legislative session that must be looked at. We want people to have vouchers that can help them find permanent homes. We need to really build the housing New Yorkers need. The state lawmakers must pass a 421-a replacement to allow more office conversion and lift the cap on housing in Midtown, Manhattan.

We continue to advocate for these changes even as we ramp up our own efforts. On June 16, 2023announcement is an important step forward. Root change will help get both families and single adults in shelter the help they need when they need it, with more precision and less red tape and bureaucracy. As we have have said so often, the solution to homelessness is permanent housing. And with this change, we will move more New Yorkers into homes that they can call their home faster and even are more reliable than before. Thank you. Thank you for all involved.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you, mayor. Now we'd like to hear from Molly Park, the commissioner from the Department of Social Services.

[Crosstalk.]

Commissioner Molly Park, Department of Social Services: Thank you, deputy mayor. Good morning. I'm Molly Wasow Park. I'm the commissioner for the Department of Social Services. As some of you might know, before joining DSS, I used to work at the HPD, at the city's housing agency, and strengthening access to affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers has been the foundation of my career. On June 16, 2023announcement is especially close to my heart as we further expedite connections to housing opportunities for New Yorkers in shelter. The wide range of CityFHEPS reforms that we announced late last year are already in effect, helping even more New Yorkers get stably housed. And the system changes we've made, process and staffing improvements, and tech innovations to expedite placements are paying off. As a result of these efforts, we've been able to increase our total subsidized housing placements by 20 percent year over year. This year, we're on track to connect a record number of households to CityFHEPS vouchers.

Bottom line, DSS is the city social service agency, but we're also a housing agency. DSS administers rental subsidies for 56,000 households. That makes us effectively the fourth-largest housing authority in the country. We also continue to work on creative solutions with our agency partners to facilitate the creation of affordable housing for our clients. While we know there is always more work to be done, our efforts are headed in the right direction. And with on June 16, 2023important step, we look forward to continuing to build on the important progress that we've made.

With the elimination of the length of stay requirement, we'll be able to move more New Yorkers from shelter to permanent housing more quickly while freeing up much needed capacity in the DHS shelter system. I want to thank our incredible not-for-profit partners, some of whom are here on June 16, 2023. We can't do this work without you. And I'm especially grateful to Mayor Adams and Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom for leading the way and truly leading no stone unturned in the city's efforts to ensure that despite unprecedented challenges, we remain equipped to provide care for every vulnerable family and individual who comes to us in need of shelter. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Commissioners, thank you so much for all the work that you've done, and thank you so much for saying yes to us when we asked you to take this position. Now, I'd like to bring up Carla Smith, deputy CEO from the Urban Resource Institute.

Dr. Carla Smith, Deputy CEO, Urban Resource Institute: Good morning. Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, and commissioner for the opportunity to speak on June 16, 2023. As mentioned, my name is Dr. Carla Smith. I'm the deputy CEO for Urban Resource Institute. We are the largest provider of domestic violence shelter services in New York City and around the country. For those who don't know, URI provides shelter and trauma-informed care to families experiencing homelessness and survivors of domestic violence, including those who have pets. On an average evening, we serve more than 2,200 people in one of our 22 shelters across the city. At URI, we know far too well how real the struggle is for our clients to find safe, stable, and affordable housing. URI's dedicated staff begins providing comprehensive services as soon as our clients walk through the door. We help them to stabilize and obtain the skills required to achieve and maintain housing. However, that process has often taken way too long prior to on June 16, 2023.

I'm so proud to be here on June 16, 2023as Mayor Adams takes this important action to further expand access to CityFHEPS housing vouchers for New Yorkers in shelter. With this rule change, our staff can immediately begin working to help clients find safe and secure their next home. This administration is working to strengthen access to rental assistance, cut the red tape, as the mayor already indicated, and eliminate barriers to permanent housing for vulnerable New Yorkers.

Against the backdrop of an ongoing humanitarian crisis, it's critical that we continue to work together to provide resources to every single person experiencing homelessness. This step that the mayor is taking on June 16, 2023will help free up much-needed shelter space, enabling us as providers to move more quickly to place clients into permanent housing, and it will make a significant difference to the lives of the people that we serve.

Mayor Adams, thank you to you and to your leadership team for all this work and for actually taking this important step on June 16, 2023. At URI, we look forward to continuing our work to partner with the city to provide safe and stable temporary and permanent housing to those in need. Now, our CEO, Nathaniel Fields, who was supposed to be here on June 16, 2023, could not be here, but he wanted me to just share a few words and reiterate his excitement and appreciation, applauding the city's efforts to do this on June 16, 2023. He did want me to mention that there is more work to be done, and we all know this as providers in the community, that we must meet the challenges of this moment with a call to action.

That call to action for everyone in this room and beyond involves needing a more comprehensive and coherent national immigration policy. We know we must take action, and what we need now is a political will to do that. We must create real solutions to address our shared humanitarian crisis, and we are part of that solution along with the other providers in this room and in the city. Thank you, mayor. Appreciate it.

[Crosstalk.]

Anne Williams-Isom: I won't even tell you what he said. Thank you. Thank you, sister. And I left off, you're a doctor, so Dr. Smith, thank you so much. Now we'd like to hear a few words from Shams DaBaron from his personal experiences. Stay right here.

Shams DaBaron: Hope I could read this. Thank you, deputy mayor. Good morning, everybody. On June 16, 2023I'm proud to stand by the mayor, the deputy mayor, the commissioners chief housing officer, and all of you who are here because we're celebrating an important occasion. As someone who has lived in the shelter, slept on our streets, raised my son in the family shelter system, slept in the subways, and struggled for such a long time in search of affordable housing in New York City, I know very well how that could negatively impact a person's mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. When you hit rock bottom and find yourself navigating a system full of red tape and filled with tremendous barriers to housing, oh, I'm telling you, it takes a toll on your life.

While my search for housing is finally over on June 16, 2023, I continue to fight to make things better for my brothers and sisters in need. And I'm grateful for being able to help so many people with the support of our mayor who opened up the doors of City Hall and welcomed not just me, but other impacted advocates like Sarah Wilson. And as we took our seats at the table and began helping to bring change to the broken systems that have been a staple of city government, everyone has been supportive in this administration.

The CityFHEPS reforms that were implemented last year were the direct result of real and focused interactions with homeless New Yorkers. When impacted advocates gave voice to what we felt was the most important needs, our most important needs without an intermediary, the result was a clearer understanding of the issues and what needed to be done to properly address our issues. So we're celebrating at City Hall because the city is removing yet another barrier to permanent housing for homeless New Yorkers. With this action, the administration is doubling down on the commitment to reducing administrative burdens for our vulnerable communities. Last night, there were 80,613 people in our city shelters. 26,970 of them were children. It is clear from these numbers that we are in a homelessness and lack of affordable housing crisis. We are facing challenges that were not even on our radar a year ago this time. So I believe it's important to work toward a sensible solution that will not ignore the plight of those who are all already stuck in shelters.

We can't talk about racial equity if we allowed 90 percent of the Black and brown people to remain stuck in shelters without a quick pathway to housing. And I'm saying this, a city divided against itself will not stand during this time of crisis. I humbly encourage all of us to come together, roll up our sleeves, put our differences aside, center people over politics, listen and engage with those closest in proximity to the issues, and work collectively to solve homelessness in our city. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for continuing to cut the red tape and expanding access to housing for New Yorkers in need.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Shams, thank you so much for that powerful testimony. And now I think we are moving to the table, mayor.

Mayor Adams: Yep. Yep. Yep. Sounds like a plan. 

[Crosstalk.]

Question: So Mr. Mayor, with this announcement, are you now looking to veto the package of council bills that would've suspended this rule, and then also expanded eligibility for the vouchers in other ways?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that on June 16, 2023 significant, and I really want to thank Jessica just for her overall service to our city and her overall approach to the housing crisis. And you know you hear me use this analogy all the time, you have to damn many rivers that feed the sea of something. There are many rivers that are feeding the sea of homelessness. On June 16, 2023, we are damning one. And I think that was the intention of my friends in the Council. They wanted to get rid of the 90-day rule.

But when you look at the entire package that they presented, some of the items in that package are problematic. And I think it's going to cost New Yorkers, I think their estimate was $11 billion. Our estimate is an area of $17 billion. We have 20,000 vouchers out there currently. And to add that pool to those who fall back in their rent for a short period of time, you're just going to make it difficult for those who are in homeless shelters now, difficult for them to get out.

And so at the heart of this was removing the 90 day rule. We are on the same page. We negotiated with them, we were there together, somehow went into another direction. But we want to get this done. We heard the advocates talk about this for a long time. Our conversation with many, some who are here, some who are not here. And this is a major, another barrier, as Shams stated, that we have to continue to dismantle this problem of homelessness.

Which is interesting, even in our dismantling, another river comes open, as it was alluded to over 70,000 migrant asylum seekers. And so it's going to continue to evolve and we got to be ready to shift. And so parts of that package, we think it's going to hurt taxpayers, and we're not trying to raise tax dollars, and we think it's going to cause, we don't see the way they're going to be able to do it.

Question: So is that a veto?

Question: How does this signing play into what might be a strategy of trying to sustain a veto on the larger bill? Will that help pick off, Council members will support you in veto?

Mayor Adams: It's a strategy of dismantling the 90-day rule. That's our strategy. My corp counsel, Judge Radix, is going to deal with any legalities that's dealing with the bill. We will deal with what our next steps are, once that's in front of us. But listen, we are pleased with the working of the City Council and what we are doing.

You don't agree on everything, but we agree on a lot. And when people say that we're not working together, you could just look at what we were able to accomplish with the outdoor dining. This is going to create a hundred thousand jobs. It's going to allow us to deal with removal of those unsightly sheds. We came together and we were able to accomplish that. And so we are accomplishing things together, and there are things we're going to disagree on. That's the beauty of this type of government, that you have two bodies that will come together and come up with solutions like we did with the outdoor dining.

Question: But you're not saying you're going to veto it?

Question: Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Bernadette.

Question: Hi.

Mayor Adams: What's happening? This row here, folks who are new, that's the row right there. That's the row right there. [Laughter.] 

Question: Well, so the commissioner said that this would clear up, or free up much needed space in the shelter system. I'm wondering how many places in the shelter system and are you hoping that could be freed up for migrants? And also, you've been talking about cheaper options to house migrants, of course. You've been contracting with hotels, other large-scale spaces... Would this be cheaper also for the city, to have migrants going into the regular shelter system, and also, how much cheaper?

Mayor Adams: Okay. I just want to do one correction, one error I made. I will move you out of that row and Jeff Mays would take that seat. He'll be part of that row. [Laughter.] 

Question: Put us in the front?

Mayor Adams: No, I want you in the front. We have to find cheaper ways. Clearly, the numbers are not subsiding. I don't think people realize we're still dealing with this issue. Molly, that's probably your biggest downside is that you're managing the darn thing that people think is not still a crisis. We're still navigating upstate. The judge is still dealing with lawsuits up there. We're still trying to find partners. We're still trying to get the funding, and we have to find a cheaper way to do this because it's just not sustainable.

And we are looking at many ways of how we're going to deal with that influx of migrant and asylum seekers. Our goal is to get people into permanent housing. That's our goal. We can't accomplish that goal if the inventory is not there. The inventory comes with the extension of 421-a, with lifting the FAR, with doing the hotel conversion, with building around transit hubs. People often look at the city and say, "Build more," without realizing the beginning process of building more starts upstate. You guys are astute enough to... You saw what happened upstate. No housing package came out of Albany. If you would ask every elected official in Albany, what's the number one crisis we're facing in the city? Probably the top three, housing is going to be there. So, how could we end a session not going with one of our top three issues? I just don't see how that could happen.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you still haven't said whether you will veto the council's package of legislation or not. And then secondly, I'm wondering what happened that the administration could not come to an agreement with the City Council, at least over the 90-day rule. Even if you disagreed with the other parts of the package, why couldn't the city, the administration and council at least agree on the 90-day rule?

Mayor Adams: Yes, you stated that I still haven't said if I was going to veto the package or not, because you're right, I have not said. The team is still deciding how we're going to move forward to the entire package. And once we do, we will let you guys know right away.

I don't know why we didn't come to an agreement. We were clearly on the same place. We sat down together, we said, "Listen, we got it. We're with you. Let's go forward." And so, that's the question that I think you have to present to the council. It was the entire package that we saw. We can't afford, by their numbers, $11 billion. $11 billion, on top of the fiscal cliff we're going to face next year when the Covid dollars run out, on top of these 70-something thousand migrant assignment seekers, over 90,000 combined in our shelter system. When you look at all of these financial crises that we are facing, to add another $11 billion on their numbers, $17 billion on our numbers, is just not going to add up for taxpayers, unless people are talking about raising taxes, which we cannot continue to overburden taxpayers on doing.

Question: Thank you. Thanks. To your point, Mr. Mayor, advocates have called for doing away with this rule for a long time, basically since you took office. Why did you wait to do this until after the council passed the legislation? Number one. And number two, can you explain a little bit what goes into you opting to do this via an executive order as opposed to just signing the council bill that I assume is sitting on your desk?

Mayor Adams: Okay. First, the advocates were calling for this prior to me taking office, prior to... You just said since I took office.

Question: [Inaudible] further, yes.

Mayor Adams: I want a little accuracy because from time to time, you guys would take a sentence and make it something else. So this was happening... The calls were prior to me taking office. We're clear on that. Right?

Question: Yes. [Inaudible] face the same question.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Good. Okay, there you go. But he didn't do it. I'm doing it. And as I stated, the package of bills that they have, we have issues with some of the items in the package. We agree on the 90-days rules, but we don't agree. We're looking at the existing 20,000 vouchers that are out there that people can't find housing, now we're going to add another population on top of that. That is going to cause people to stay into shelters longer.

Question: Why wait this long, though?

Mayor Adams: Part of our overall plan. The chief housing officer mapped out a series of things. Let's not give the impression we were sitting on our hands. Jessica Katz mapped out a series of things that we were going to do. We were up in Albany fighting to get this legislation passed. I don't know how many times you went up to Albany. Our team went up. IGA went up. We had a series of things... Remember I said we had to dam several rivers. We were negotiating with the council on the 90-day rule to say, "Let's do this together. Let's not add other burdens in." So, there was a series of things we were doing. We were not standing still. To the contrary.

Chief housing officer, her team, the entire team was working on a series of things. We'd have loved to have done this with the council, like we're doing the outdoor dining. But unfortunately, they put a package together that we cannot see that's not going to overburden taxpayers.

Question: Just sign the 90-day—

Mayor Adams: Okay. Wait a minute. Why are you yelling, man? I want you to get into breathing. No, I would love to sign it. If they take that out of the package, I would love to sign the 90-day rule. That's not an argument. We are on the same thing. We did it on June 16, 2023. It's gone. It's gone.

Question: You can't do that, though. You can only sign one bill.

Mayor Adams: It's gone. We're going to do the next one. Yes.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you said that you think the city estimates the council package would cost $17 billion. Is there a cost to just eliminating the rule as you're doing on June 16, 2023?

Mayor Adams: Is there a cost—

Question: Is there a budget impact to just eliminating the bill?

Mayor Adams: Do you have that? Or we can... You have it? Okay.

Commissioner Park: Yes, there is a cost. I believe the OMB estimate is about $123 million a year.

Original source can be found here.