The Adams administration has proposed using its administrative powers to suspend the Big Apple’s controversial rule that the homeless spend at least 90 days in city shelters before qualifying for a housing voucher, sources said Monday.
The sources said they believed the floated compromise was part of an effort by City Hall to find enough votes on the City Council to sustain a veto of a larger package of legislation, which not only nixed the 90-day rule but expanded eligibility for the program.
“This administration is very good at finding loopholes and ways to circumvent the City Council and the law, so I’m not surprised,” said Councilwoman Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan/Bronx), who chairs the committee that oversees the city’s response to homelessness.
“The entire package needs to be signed into law,” she continued.
When asked about the possibility of the mayor finding the votes to sustain a veto, she added: “It ain’t happening.”
The package of four bills passed by lawmakers with a veto-proof majority in late May not only nixed the 90-day rule to shorten shelter stays, it made it easier for New Yorkers facing eviction to apply for a voucher, increased the income cut-offs for the program and barred landlords from deducting the cost of utilities from the city-issued rent check.
The Adams administration loudly protested the package, accusing lawmakers of trying to foist a tax increase on city residents.
The council’s action also started the legislative clock on Adams, giving him 30 days to decide between accepting the legislation and trying to round up the votes to sustain a veto.
This weekend, city officials reached out to executives at several top social service nonprofits to brief them on Adams’ plan to make the administrative rule changes, which the administration may roll out as soon as Tuesday.
The officials declined to comment on the fate of the entire package in those conversations, but supporters of the legislation described it as an apparent attempt to lock down enough votes to uphold a veto.
“They’re saying, ‘Okay, we agree on the 90-day rule,’ but they’re not making commitments on anything else,” one source told The Post.
City Hall would not confirm a coming announcement, but attacked the council’s package again in a statement in response to questions from The Post.
“No announcement is confirmed until we make it, but since day one of this administration, Mayor Adams has worked to shelter New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and connect our city’s residents with more permanent housing,” said City Hall press secretary Fabien Levy.
“The City Council’s package of bills, however, does the opposite — making it harder for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to exit shelter to permanent housing.”
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