City Hall, NY – Today, the New York City Council released Administrative Challenges with CityFHEPS and Solutions to Streamline Access to Vouchers, a report analyzing the common operational roadblocks and inefficiencies in the City’s administration of the CityFHEPS housing assistance voucher program. The report identifies solutions that the Department of Social Services (DSS) can administratively implement to improve the process and reduce unnecessary delays for applicants, property owners, and agency staff. First announced by Speaker Adrienne Adams in her 2024 State of the City, the report addresses the inefficiencies and dysfunction in the delivery of a key city service that can combat homelessness and housing insecurity.

Read the full report here.

The report was developed after a series of meetings with staff from Homeless Services United, the Legal Aid Society, and members of the Homes Can’t Wait Coalition, as well as property owner advocates from the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and the New York Apartment Association. It details how administrative delays, inadequate technology, and DSS policies collectively delay the application process, slow down rent payments, frustrate staff and voucher holders, making it harder for New Yorkers to exit the shelter system and remain in permanent housing.

“Successfully accessing and using a CityFHEPS housing voucher to obtain stable housing is still too difficult and cumbersome for New Yorkers in need of support,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “Fulfilling a proposal from my 2024 State of the City address, I’m proud to unveil a set of solutions to streamline this onerous process and remove the inefficiencies that prevent residents from receiving the help they deserve. These fixes can be implemented by the mayoral administration and Department of Social Services without changing the law – it just requires a commitment to better serve New Yorkers and demands immediate action. By removing these unnecessary barriers, city government can take a critical step to support residents at risk of eviction or experiencing homelessness and improve housing outcomes.”

“The CityFHEPS program is one of the city’s biggest tools to reduce homelessness but is held back by staff shortages, technology errors, and inefficient processes,” said Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala. “I’ve heard from so many New Yorkers about how these issues have led to them falling through the cracks and not receiving the help they need to access stable housing. Fortunately, an effective program without frustration and confusion is within the City’s control, and the Council’s report outlines the path forward. Thank you to all who contributed to the report, and I look forward to supporting implementation of these solutions by the mayoral administration.

To address the common administrative issues outlined in the report, the Council proposed the following solutions for DSS to implement:

Addressing Application Challenges

1. Expand capacity to process CityFHEPS applications by authorizing more community-based organizations to assist with applications.
2. Eliminate or significantly extend expiration dates on shopping letters to prevent disruptions in housing searches and applications.
3. Ensure timely recertification of CityFHEPS eligibility within two weeks of expiration.  If DSS fails to process a recertification in a timely manner at no fault of the tenant, rental assistance should continue at the same amount until DSS issues a final determination on eligibility.
4. Establish, fulfill and track goal of processing application approvals within 15 days of submission to speed up housing placements and reduce shelter stays.
5. Allow CityFHEPS applications for shelters residents to be processed in parallel with income eligibility verification conducted by property management companies for affordable housing units to expedite the process.

Standardizing and Simplifying Apartment Inspections

1. Permit property owners and brokers to fill out one pre-clearance form per building, which should be retained by DSS in a way that allows for easy updates as new units become available. 
2. Establish, fulfill and track the goal of completing apartment inspections within seven days of request and conducting any re-inspections within seven days after outstanding issues have been resolved by an owner or property manager.
3. Standardize apartment inspection procedures, including the creation of a hierarchy of issues so that minor, easily fixable problems do not result in inspection failures.
4. Allow for virtual inspections and waive inspection requirements not related to health and safety concerns already covered under the City’s Building Code.

Enhancing Transparency

1. Provide regular public reporting on all steps of the CityFHEPS process, including average processing times for each application stage, preclearance, and apartment inspection failure rates, staffing levels and turnover rates of CityFHEPS program-specific positions, caseworker caseload ratios, etc.
2. Publish annual performance targets for each stage of a CityFHEPS process and performance evaluation for the preceding fiscal year, along with a corrective action plan for each missed target.
3. Provide annual reporting on key indicators, including rent-up volume, housing lottery timelines, and the total number and vacancy rate of homeless set-asides and supportive housing units.

Improving Technology

1. Digitize the front-end and back-end of all rental assistance programs. Full digitization would enable the City to track processing times, monitor staff performance, and identify which property owners respond quickly or delay paperwork completion.
2. Fully implement Local Law 118 of 2020, which requires the status of rental assistance applications and renewal requests to be accessible online to applicants and providers. This supports the City’s broader digital modernization goals.
3. Develop a clear checklist for voucher holders that outlines all required documentation for applications or recertifications. This checklist should be available on ACCESS HRA, which should also allow for easier document uploads that are automatically linked to the correct case file.
4. Provide client notifications via ACCESS HRA at major milestones, including submission to pre-clearance, denial notices, case transfers to DSS, and issuance of payments.
5. Enable electronic form completion and signature within application packets to streamline submissions.
6. Create a centralized property owner portal where recurring documents (e.g., pre-clearance forms, W-9s, payment information, ownership/registration details, and contact information) can be entered once and saved for future use.

Improve Internal Policies and Procedures and Customer Service

1. Allow clients to review their full application packet before submission to verify accuracy and completeness.
2. Assign a consistent caseworker to each client from voucher issuance through move-in. If documentation is missing, DSS should proactively reach out via phone, email, and text—not just by mail—to improve response rates and reduce delays.
3. Engage DHS Rehousing Unit staff and shelter-based analysts in supporting accurate and timely pre-clearance submissions. A case review task force should be created to review long-standing cases, with a clear timeline shared with staff for clients at each key stage (voucher in hand, unit found, discrimination case filed).
4. Screen Housing Court cases more effectively through DSS and the Office of Civil Justice to divert cases that can be quickly resolved administratively—before legal proceedings and counsel assignments occur. This would save resources and help New Yorkers receive relief faster.
5. Increase HRA staffing levels and provide comprehensive, ongoing training in CityFHEPS policies to ensure staff are equipped to support clients at every stage of the process.

Strengthening Payment Standards

1. Ensure rent payments from the City are issued within the first five days of each month, providing landlords with reliable payment timelines and protecting tenants from late fees or eviction threats. Establish and track fulfillment of outcomes towards this goal, with subsequent evaluation and corrective action plans to resolve chronic delays.
2. Adopt the Exception Payment Standard (EPS) currently used by HPD, NYCHA, and the Emergency Housing Voucher Program. EPS allows voucher holders to access housing in a broader range of neighborhoods by allowing for higher voucher amounts in specific zip codes.
3. Provide furniture vouchers within five days of lease signing, ensuring that newly housed tenants can move in safely and with dignity. Establish and track this outcome goal, with subsequent evaluation and corrective action plans to resolve chronic delays.

“CityFHEPS is a lifeline for New Yorkers seeking stable homes, but, as the Council’s report shows, it is hobbled by myriad, unnecessary administrative burdens,” said David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York. “In this report, the City Council clearly enumerates the programmatic problems with CityFHEPS, and demonstrates that each and every one of them is imminently solvable. We call on the administration to adopt these reforms and put more New Yorkers on the path to permanent housing.”

“CityFHEPS housing vouchers are one of the greatest tools in our arsenal for addressing the homelessness crisis. But for too long, the program has been plagued by glaring administrative issues and mismanagement, limiting its potential and leaving countless families unnecessarily stranded in shelter,” said Christine C. Quinn, President & CEO of Win. “Win has been a longstanding proponent of CityFHEPS reform, having released a report over a year ago to shine a light on the issues afflicting the program and to carve a path forward grounded in common-sense solutions. We applaud Speaker Adams and the City Council for their leadership in adopting many of these recommendations, which will create a more streamlined path to permanent housing for families across New York City. We now urge the expedient adoption of these reforms – for our city and for the thousands of families that depend on CityFHEPS vouchers.”

“This report covers many of the problems that continue to impact people with CityFHEPS vouchers and provides clear recommendations for improvement,” said Calvin Michael, member of the Safety Net Activists and a CityFHEPS voucher recipient. “These problems and delays have impacted thousands of people and the City should work quickly to eliminate the delays and improve the CityFHEPS process. We also continue to call on the Mayor to implement the CityFHEPS laws of 2023 so that tenants can keep their homes and shelter residents can move out of shelters.”

“Neighbors Together thanks the City Councill and Speaker Adams for issuing this important report,” said Amy Blumsack, Director of Organizing & Policy at Neighbors Together. “Our members have faced eviction, lost apartments, lost benefits, and their mental health has suffered as they’ve been victims of unnecessary administrative delays with CityFHEPS. We are grateful to the Council for uplifting the issues and solutions called for by advocates and homeless New Yorkers.”

“The CityFHEPS program is a lifeline for so many of our clients facing eviction in Housing Court, but the current administration of CityFHEPS is hampered by errors and delays which have directly impacted a significant number of our Right to Counsel housing cases,” said William Botchway, Legal Advocate at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. “We applaud the efforts of the New York City Council to provide common-sense solutions that would immediately improve a program that so many rely on to be housed safely and securely, and we urge DSS to swiftly implement these recommendations. Allowing additional community-based organizations to process applications will lift a burden from under-resourced Homebases that should improve access to CityFHEPS by reducing unnecessary backlogs. New Yorkers, especially our most vulnerable populations that will require CityFHEPS services, deserve dignity and care from their local agencies. We hope that these recommendations reinforce this truth in the CityFHEPS program.”

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