Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
The New Yorkers who can't get housing vouchers as Mamdani fights program expansion
By
Karen Yi
Published Apr 15, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Karen Yi / Gothamist
By
Karen Yi
Published Apr 15, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Ciro Sollazzi, 67, is scared he might have to enter a homeless shelter for the first time in his life.
Sollazzi lost his job as a hairdresser during the pandemic. Then he got sick and couldn’t go back to work. Now, he owes $23,000 in back rent and is facing eviction from the Kensington apartment he’s lived in for 22 years.
“Every time I see a homeless person, I get the fear struck inside of me, that I'm going to wind up to be one of those people,” he said. “I feel ashamed.”
Sollazzi is among the New Yorkers who would be eligible for a housing subsidy under a program expansion the City Council proposed in 2023. It would make people at risk of entering shelters eligible for rental assistance — not just people living in them already.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who pledged to expand the program during his campaign, is now trying to negotiate a compromise that will cost less and is fighting the City Council in court over implementing the laws. His administration said broadening eligibility for the $1.2 billion program is too expensive, and would drive costs up to $4.7 billion by 2030 — about the size of the city’s entire homeless services agency.
More than 65,000 households receive the CityFHEPS voucher, which stands for Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, making it the nation’s largest municipal housing assistance program. Recipients pay 30% of their income toward rent and the city covers the rest.
The Mamdani administration said it's ramping up investments in tenant protections and affordable housing, committing to building 200,000 new homes over the next decade.
City Hall spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said the mayor “has been clear that CityFHEPS is an invaluable tool to prevent homelessness and support homeless New Yorkers. That is why our team is working hard to ensure that it is fiscally sound and sustainable for the long-term.”
The expansion would make many people who don't currently qualify for vouchers eligible for them, including people facing eviction and people in shelters who currently don’t qualify. Some people aren’t working enough under the current rules, some are living in a shelter that isn't eligible and some earn too much money.
Gothamist spoke to New Yorkers who would benefit from the expansion laws.
Kevin Joseph Cuffy earns too much
Cuffy, 32, has lived in a Bushwick shelter for the last year, and commutes to work at a nonprofit in the Bronx.
He makes $19.49 an hour and works full time. But he said his wage is too high to make him eligible for a rental voucher from the city, even though it’s not enough for him to afford his own apartment and stay there.
Caption: Kevin Joseph Cuffy, 32, works full time but earns too much to be eligible for a cityFHEPS voucher.
Karen Yi / Gothamist
“If the rent wasn't so much, then I don't think I would be in a shelter right now,” he said. “Because I know that I'm not going to make it. Even if it's a one-bedroom apartment, then I'm going to have to go get into a program to get some help.”
To be eligible for city rental assistance, a household’s income must be at or below 200% of the federal poverty line, or twice what a person living on the federal poverty line makes. That means a single person can't earn more than $31,300 a year. A family of four can’t earn more than $64,300.
The expansion would boost that to 50% of the area median income, or about $56,700 for a single person and $81,000 for a family of four.
Cuffy, who aspires to go back to school and work as a graphic designer, said he wants to stop cycling between shelter and housing as he has the last six years — and a voucher would give him that chance.
“ I've seen people who have been in [shelter] without a job and leave before I do,” he said. It seems like I just got to be in there for a while in order to get out … So I'm just being patient right now.”
Djibril Soulama just lost his job
Soulama, 25, said he was approved for a rental assistance voucher, but it expired after a delay by the city in processing his case. Then he lost his part-time job in a factory. When Soulama tried to renew his voucher, he found out he was no longer eligible.
Djibril Soulama, 25, lost his job and no longer qualifies for a cityFHEPS voucher.
Karen Yi / Gothamist
Under current city requirements, recipients have to work at least 10 hours a week to qualify. The expansion rules would get rid of the work requirement.
“ I pretty much lost the voucher,” Soulama said. He said he entered the shelter system with his mom after they were priced out of their Harlem apartment when the rent tripled nearly two years ago. “It's hard to be optimistic when you have to face this reality of being denied housing.”
Soulama lives in a single men’s shelter in the Bronx and said he can’t afford an apartment on his own, even when he was employed. He said he graduated from SUNY Purchase and wanted to pursue a career in filmmaking and eventually attend graduate school.
“This was stopping me,” he said. “Housing was literally stopping me.”
Lajoy Clark isn’t in a traditional adult shelter
Clark, 20, lives in a youth shelter but doesn't qualify for a voucher because she's not in the traditional adult shelter system, which is run by the Department of Homeless Services.
She said she doesn’t want to have to move to another system and enter a single adult women’s shelter to be able to get help with housing.
Lajoy Clark, 20, is in a youth shelter bed, not the traditional adult system, and doesn’t qualify for cityFHEPS.
Karen Yi / Gothamist
“That's my last option right now,” she said of moving to an adult shelter as a step toward getting a voucher. “Too much different personalities, too much people who come from different situations, who have different attitudes.”
The package of CityFHEPS laws would make eligible anyone who is homeless, regardless of what shelter they reside in, so long as they meet the income requirements. Right now vouchers are largely for shelter residents residing in DHS facilities.
Clark said she isn’t waiting around to find out how the expansion is settled; she decided to move to Niagara Falls, where she found a job and will live with a friend.
“The city that you're born and raised in and they can't even help you,” she said. “It's kind of heartbreaking.”
Ciro Sollazzi doesn’t live in a shelter
Sollazzi said he’s never been homeless and fears what will happen if he gets evicted. He’s not eligible for the rental assistance program but said being able to get a voucher would “be like a godsend.”
One of the biggest changes to the program under the City Council's laws would involve expanding eligibility to New Yorkers who are currently housed but facing eviction, even before they enter the shelter system.
Sollazzi worries that if he has to enter a shelter, it would be much harder for him to find a place to live because his credit score has been ruined. He probably also wouldn’t be able to find an apartment for $1,100 a month, like the one he currently lives in.
Advocates for voucher expansion say making more people eligible would save the city money from people avoiding the shelter system. The Legal Aid Society, which is representing Sollazzi, said giving people vouchers for low-cost apartments they already live in would be cheaper than giving them to evicted New Yorkers to use for covering rent at more expensive units.
“ Life takes a turn. You never know when you may find yourself one day, maybe asking for a different type of help, and you too might be denied,” Sollazzi said.
Tagged
economy
housing
new york city
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .