The Real Estate Board of New York to The City Council Committee on General Welfare regarding the Oversight Hearing on CityFHEPS

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The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) is the City’s leading real estate trade association representing commercial, residential, and institutional property owners, builders, managers, investors, brokers, salespeople, and other organizations and individuals active in New York City real estate. REBNY appreciates this opportunity to voice full support for the legislation before the Council today regarding the management of CityFHEPS vouchers.

New York City is in the midst of a well-documented housing crisis, with the lowest vacancy rate on record since 1968. While we need more housing to help solve that problem, the housing crisis is also one of affordability. Housing vouchers in New York City are pivotal in mitigating homelessness, increasing housing stability, and improving long-term health, social, and economic outcomes for adults and children. We are incredibly fortunate to have a City funded voucher program, and one where the value of those vouchers meets fair market rents. However, New York City’s current administration of its housing voucher programs is flawed, and voucher holders regularly find their housing opportunities limited.

Among the many challenges with the current voucher system is the fact that it does not set up the voucher holder for success in their apartment search and keeps families in shelter longer. When competing for an apartment in a supply limited marketplace, the voucher holder is placed at a disadvantage to a non-voucher holder due to delays in approvals, requests for additional or redundant paperwork, and bureaucratic hurdles such as a lengthy and unpredictable inspection process.

New Yorkers deserve a functional voucher system that efficiently and effectively place families in homes and keeps them housed. To advocate for such a system, in 2024, Women in Need (Win) and REBNY co-authored the report Housing More New Yorkers to leverage our collective insights and experiences with the challenges besetting the City’s voucher programs. We all share a common goal: improving the voucher process and helping voucher holders find stable housing.

To that end, our organizations outlined policy changes that need to address the following:

• Reduce delays that prevent voucher holders from securing housing;

• Eliminate confusion and inconsistencies regarding voucher programs;

• Move past outdated processes and utilize a digital portal to improve the process;

• Enhance outreach and coordination to prevent source-of-income discrimination;

• Streamline the City’s affordable housing lottery to get voucher holders into new units faster.

Intros 1458, 1459, and 1477 will address core challenges in the existing bureaucracy around the processing of CityFHEPS vouchers. Intro 1458 would institutionalize best practices around inspections, requiring the Department of Social Services to clearly delineate major versus minor areas of concerns which will in turn allow for the quicker mitigation and resolution of minor concerns so that a family can move in faster. The creation of an online portal for use by the agency, tenant, and property owner will increase transparency and ensure accountability for addressing issues in a timely manner. Intro 1459 will require the agency to track and report to the Mayor, Council, and include in the Mayor’s Management Report, the average length of time it takes to secure housing after receiving a voucher. This will allow stakeholders to know for the first time how many voucher holders are searching for apartments each year. Lastly, Intro 1477 will require a City agency to respond to a voucher applicant within 15 days regarding voucher approval, disapproval or whether information is missing.

We thank Councilmember Brewer, Speaker Adams and the City Council, and Chris Quinn of Win for their continued leadership to ensure that the CityFHEPS voucher program is a success for tenants who need housing and the property owners who house them. Thank you once again for allowing REBNY to submit testimony in support of these important proposed bills.