NEW YORK — The Adams administration is launching a new initiative that aims to use city vouchers for homeless New Yorkers to create subsidized housing in market-rate buildings.
Under the program first reported by POLITICO, nonprofits contracting with the city can lease buildings from private landlords for up to nine years, before renting those apartments to CityFHEPS voucher holders.
The city is also working with nonprofits to acquire the buildings, with 30-plus-year contracts to provide voucher payments to those properties.
“What’s really unique here is that this is the city committing social service dollars to affordable housing supply issues,” Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park said in an interview.
An agency spokesperson did not disclose the projected cost of the program.
Mayor Eric Adams will additionally issue an emergency declaration on Thursday to expedite contracting with the nonprofits, allowing providers to more swiftly lease buildings and move voucher holders into them. Officials said that move would fast-track 1,000 subsidized units.