Council speakers and advocates press mayor to drop litigation and fully fund City FEPS expansion

Council members, shelter providers and tenant advocates rallied in New York City to press the mayor to drop the cityFEPS litigation and fully fund an expansion of the Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (referred to by speakers as "City FEPS" or "CityFEPs"). Speakers said the expansion would help families exit shelter and prevent avoidable evictions.

"We will not back down," Council member Pierina Sanchez said, opening the program and calling the expansion a "budget fight" to protect the citys most vulnerable. Sanchez told the crowd that, since the council passed expansion laws, "45,000 families have been evicted" and said roughly half of those evictions "could have been prevented," attributing those figures to the council's public statements.

Julie Menon, the council speaker (introduced), reviewed the programs legislative history and the ongoing litigation and urged the administration to "drop the litigation" and negotiate a responsible implementation. Menon summarized a cost comparison cited by speakers, saying vouchers can cost as little as about $54 per day while speakers placed shelter costs at as much as $270 per day; she and others said moving families into permanent housing could save the city hundreds of millions over five years.

Shelter and service providers described how vouchers help people move into stable housing. Christine Quinn, CEO and president of Women in Need, said the voucher program works and warned that the mayor had not kept a campaign promise to withdraw the citys legal challenge. Dave Giffin of the Coalition for the Homeless and a Legal Aid Society representative urged a budgetary commitment to allow the expansion to proceed.

Speakers offered personal testimony: Nathan Flowers of Vocal, New York described five years in the shelter system and credited City FEPS with enabling his move to permanent housing. Community organizers and voucher holders said delays in implementation have left families in shelters and at risk of eviction.

Organizers and several council members acknowledged administrative and governance issues in the existing program, citing a report from the New York State controller (referenced by speakers) that found shortcomings in rent-reasonableness checks and other practices. Council members said those implementation challenges can be fixed while still expanding eligibility so that more families can access vouchers.

No formal vote or legislative action took place at the rally; speakers framed the event as an urgent public push ahead of the fiscal-year deadline and asked the mayors administration to include funding and a clear settlement path in the budget. The rally closed with chants in support of City FEPS and a group photo.

The council and advocates said they will continue negotiations and public pressure through the budget adoption process; organizers and council leaders asked the mayor to announce a funding decision before the start of the next fiscal year.