HRA CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive Payment Discontinuance Rule

Online comments: 19

• Maiti Rooth

  I work in housing advocacy in Brooklyn. This incentive is so key to many clients and without it affordable housing in Brooklyn becomes much less accessible. This rule protects both tenants and landlords in the rental process. Please do not take away this incentive period.

  Comment added October 8, 2025 4:28pm

• Ayana Heyward

  I am writing to express strong opposition to the proposed discontinuation of the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive. At a time when New York City continues to experience a deep and persistent housing crisis, removing this critical tool will only make it more difficult for voucher holders to secure stable housing.
  There has been no meaningful progress in reducing application processing times, which remains one of the primary barriers to housing access for CityFHEPS recipients. Many landlords are already reluctant to rent to tenants with subsidies due to bureaucratic delays and the complexity of working with city agencies. The Unit Hold Incentive helped mitigate that reluctance by offering landlords a reason to participate in the program and keep units available during the drawn-out approval process.
  Eliminating this incentive will make the apartment search process even more challenging—if not impossible—for many families and individuals who are currently in shelter and ready to move into permanent housing. This change will directly contribute to longer shelter stays and increased housing instability, disproportionately affecting some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers, including families with children.
  This policy shift appears to disregard the realities on the ground. I urge the City to provide transparency around the decision-making process: Were frontline service providers like Homebase consulted? Was feedback sought from advocates such as the Legal Aid Society or directly from voucher holders themselves? If such consultations occurred, it is hard to imagine a recommendation to end the incentive would have emerged, given that processing delays remain unresolved.
  To discontinue the Unit Hold Incentive under current conditions is not only counterproductive—it sends a troubling message about the City’s priorities regarding homelessness and housing access.
  I strongly urge you to reconsider this decision and maintain the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive until substantive improvements have been made in the application and leasing process. Without it, we risk losing ground in the fight against homelessness.
  Thank you for your attention and commitment to housing equity in New York City.

  Comment added October 8, 2025 7:32pm

• Sarah Saltzberg

  I am a broker and have been advocating for voucher holders for many years. I am writing to strongly oppose the proposed termination of the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive. In the midst of New York City’s ongoing housing crisis, removing this vital support will only hinder voucher holders’ efforts to secure stable homes.

  Despite repeated attempts, there has been little progress in reducing application processing times, which remain a major barrier for CityFHEPS recipients. Many landlords are hesitant to rent to tenants with subsidies due to bureaucratic delays and the complicated coordination with city agencies. The Unit Hold Incentive played a crucial role in encouraging landlords to participate and keep units available during prolonged approval periods.

  Ending this incentive will make finding and securing housing even more difficult—if not impossible—for families and individuals currently in shelters seeking permanent housing. Such a change risks extending shelter stays and increasing housing instability, disproportionately impacting vulnerable New Yorkers, including families with children.

  This decision seems disconnected from the realities faced by applicants and providers. I urge the City to be transparent about the process behind this policy shift: Were frontline service providers like Homebase consulted? Was input gathered from advocates such as the Legal Aid Society or directly from voucher holders? If these conversations took place, it is difficult to understand how ending the incentive aligns with efforts to address persistent processing delays.

  Dismantling the Unit Hold Incentive under the current circumstances is counterproductive and sends a troubling message about the City’s priorities regarding homelessness and housing access.

  I strongly urge you to reconsider this decision and retain the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive until meaningful improvements are made in the application and leasing procedures. Without this support, progress in combating homelessness will be at risk.

  Thank you for your attention and dedication to housing equity in New York City.

  Comment added October 15, 2025 10:48am

• Heather Huff

  I work directly with both sides of the housing equation. CityFHEPS recipients and the property managers and landlords who make these placements possible.

  The reality on the ground is that CityFHEPS transactions often take an average of three months or more to complete. During that time, landlords are expected to hold a unit off the market without rent, while navigating a complex, disjointed, and often delayed approval process.

  Without an incentive payment, there is little reason for landlords to choose a CityFHEPS applicant over a private renter who can move in immediately and begin paying rent. The incentive payment helps level the playing field, giving CityFHEPS applicants a fair chance in an extremely competitive, high-demand, low-inventory housing market.

  It’s easy to view the program as a line item in a budget, but those of us in the field see the daily challenges and barriers firsthand. Please listen to the applicants, caseworkers, advocates, and real estate professionals who are working tirelessly to make these placements happen.

  Removing the incentive would not just hurt landlords; it would ultimately harm the very families this program is designed to help.

  Comment added October 15, 2025 10:57am

• S Brown

  Taking this incentive away is another injustice to landlords who are constantly losing money due to months long process it takes to process the CityFheps/Fheps package. It’s bad enough the landlord loses at time 3-4 months’ rent in a worst case scenario. Typical packages on a good day take 2 months. I process them every day and it has in the last year taken longer than usual. Inventory is already limited and taken this away which compensate for the lengthy process is another deterrent.

  Comment added October 15, 2025 3:29pm

• Vanessa Yates

  As a CityFHEPS voucher holder, I strongly urge the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA) to reconsider its proposal to discontinue the landlord incentive payment associated with the CityFHEPS program. This incentive plays a crucial role in encouraging landlords to participate in the program and to hold apartments for voucher holders while the necessary approval and inspection processes take place.

  Finding an apartment with a CityFHEPS voucher is already a difficult and time-sensitive process. Landlords are often reluctant to participate due to the required paperwork, inspections, and the waiting period for approval and payment. The incentive payment has served as a critical tool to offset these burdens, giving landlords a reason to remain patient and cooperative while a tenant’s application moves through the system.

  From my own experience, I have had several apartment offers fall through because of the length of the CityFHEPS process. I lost three apartments because landlords could not afford to wait weeks—or sometimes months—for the inspections and approvals to be completed. These delays make it almost impossible for many voucher holders to secure housing, even when they are fully qualified and ready to move.

  Fortunately, I recently encountered a landlord who was patient, understanding, and genuinely interested in helping my family. This landlord waited over three months for the process to be completed—a rare example of kindness and perseverance that most landlords cannot afford without some form of financial incentive. The incentive payment helps bridge that gap, making it more feasible for landlords to wait for voucher approvals rather than renting to a tenant who can move in immediately.

  Eliminating this payment would likely lead to fewer landlords participating in the program, fewer available apartments for voucher holders, and longer periods of homelessness or housing instability for families like mine. The incentive is not just a bonus—it is a practical and necessary tool that supports the success of the CityFHEPS program, promotes housing equity, and helps ensure that vulnerable New Yorkers can actually use the assistance they have been granted.

  I respectfully ask HRA to reconsider this proposed amendment and to continue offering landlord incentive payments. Doing so will strengthen the program, improve landlord participation, and ultimately help families like mine achieve stable housing.

  Comment added October 22, 2025 10:32am

• Ann Korchak, Board President Small Property Owners of NY

  The unit hold program is essential, especially to smaller housing providers. SPONY is urging the city not to discontinue this program, which helps get voucher holders housed.

  Comment attachment
  SPONY-HRA-CityFHEPS-Unit-Hold-Opposition-Letter.pdf

  Comment added October 23, 2025 9:57am

• Greg K

  I srongly oppose this. If discontinued, this is going to cause more distruption than the city saving some money. Voucher holders already have a hard enough time finding landlords that will work with vouchers. You can see thousands of hardship stories in these facebook groups. The landlords that are willing to work with voucher holders usually hold rooms vacant for 2-3 months when a voucher tenant is chosen because of the lengthy process to get them approved. And at any point the tenant can drop out and you do the whole process over again which can cause 6 plus months of vacancy. The unit hold at least gives a little incentive to bear through those times. Without it, you will see more and more landlords drop out and finding ways not to accept vouchers, pricing them out or just leaving units vacant. If the city could hire more staff, cut the red tape and get voucher tenants moved within a 30 day period, you wouldn’t need a unit hold.

  Comment added October 27, 2025 8:30am

• Joe patel

  Na

  Comment added October 29, 2025 10:25am

• Chris Mann

  Testimony of Win (Women in Need) on the Elimination of the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive

  My name is Christopher Mann, and I am the Assistant Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at Win, New York City’s largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for families with children experiencing homelessness. Win operates 16 shelters and more than 450 units of supportive housing across all five boroughs. Each night, nearly 7,000 New Yorkers—including 3,600 children—call Win home.

  Win strongly believes in the potential of CityFHEPS, New York City’s rental assistance program, to be a powerful tool in ending family homelessness. Since its inception, Win has been one of the program’s most steadfast supporters—working closely with City agencies and partners to ensure families can use their vouchers to move from shelter into permanent housing.

  However, despite its promise, CityFHEPS continues to be hampered by administrative delays and inefficiencies at nearly every stage of the process—from obtaining a shopping letter to final lease-up and check disbursement. These delays often stretch for weeks or months, and landlords and brokers—understandably—grow reluctant to participate. As a result, families lose out on apartments they could have called home.

  The Unit Hold incentive was established to address this very problem. By providing landlords with the equivalent of one month’s rent to hold an apartment while City paperwork is completed, the City was able to keep units available for families using CityFHEPS vouchers. The incentive helped secure crucial buy-in from landlords and brokers, making the CityFHEPS process workable in an otherwise competitive and fast-moving rental market.

  At Win, our Housing Coordinators and Managers guide families through every step of the process. Even under the best circumstances, the lease-up process takes at least a month—and often much longer. The Unit Hold incentive was essential to bridging that gap and ensuring families who found an apartment could actually move in.

  Eliminating the Unit Hold incentive threatens to undo this progress. Without it, landlords have little reason to endure the City’s protracted administrative process, and many will once again opt out of the program entirely. That means families who have done everything right—secured a shopping letter, found a willing landlord, and submitted their paperwork—will lose their opportunity for permanent housing through no fault of their own.

  In a city where family homelessness remains at crisis levels, we cannot afford to take a step backward. The Unit Hold incentive has been a proven, cost-effective measure that keeps landlords engaged, accelerates move-outs from shelter, and ensures that CityFHEPS can function as intended.

  Win urges the Administration to reinstate the CityFHEPS Unit Hold incentive and to continue working with providers, advocates, and landlords to streamline and strengthen the CityFHEPS process—so that every family with a voucher can successfully transition from shelter to a permanent, stable home.

  Thank you

  Comment added November 3, 2025 2:51pm

• Eric Lee

  My name is Eric Lee, Director of Public Policy for Volunteers of America-Greater New York (VOA-GNY). We are the local affiliate of the national organization, Volunteers of America, Inc. (VOA). VOA-GNY is a 129-year-old anti-poverty organization that aims to end homelessness in Greater New York through housing, health and wealth building services. We are one of the region’s largest human service providers, with a robust portfolio of supportive and affordable housing, and we are a homeless services and shelter provider serving families with children, working individuals, survivors of domestic violence and people experiencing street homelessness.

  VOA-GNY, as a provider of both homeless services and affordable housing, strongly opposes the proposed rule change to CityFHEPS to discontinue Unit Hold payment incentives for landlords renting to CityFHEPS voucher holders. This rule change will negatively impact households in shelter trying to use the voucher to secure permanent housing, as it creates a financial disincentive for landlords, resulting in longer housing searches and fewer households moving out of shelter.

  Without a unit hold incentive, rental assistance vouchers must be processed and approved as quickly as the paperwork of a cash-in-hand tenant to remain competitive. As DSS Commissioner Park notes, “The hardest part about using a CityFHEPS voucher is the city has a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. There’s 13,000 households in shelter right now, who have… a shopping letter, and who haven’t found a place”1. These 13,000 households are competing against exponentially more private renters for very few vacant units. While non-vouchered households could sign a lease and move in within the same week of seeing an apartment, it takes several weeks to months for CityFHEPS voucher holders to move into housing, given the numerous additional documents, inspections, possible revisions, and non-electronic initial payments the process entails. The unit hold fee is crucial to give HRA time to process these steps, as it pays the landlord 30 days’ worth of rent to hold the unit.

  Even with this financial incentive, shelter residents have lost housing opportunities after landlords walked away due to processing delays. Housing specialists must convince landlords to resubmit new leases with start dates one month later if the application is not approved by the 20th of the month (e.g., a lease with a Nov. 1st move-in date must be changed to Dec. 1st if HRA does not approve the CityFHEPS package by Oct. 20th.), and elimination of the unit hold fee will make this proposition even less palatable.

  VOA-GNY appreciates DHS’ efforts to work with shelter providers to streamline the CityFHEPS application process, but the unit hold fee must be maintained to account for processing time of the lengthy process. Thanks to the hard work of the administration and providers, CityFHEPS is New York’s most effective tool for helping people exit shelter and attain permanent housing, and we urge the City to maintain the unit hold fee which is essential to the success of the CityFHEPS program.

  Comment attachment
  VOA-GNY-CityFHEPS-Unit-Hold-Public-Comments-11-3-25.pdf

  Comment added November 3, 2025 4:44pm

• Khaliyl Mayes

  Greetings and thank you to the members of the HRA Rules Committee for the opportunity to testify. My name is Khaliyl Mayes, and I am a Member at Neighbors Together, committed to end poverty, hunger and homelessness.

  I strongly oppose HRA’s proposed decision to remove the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive. The process of finding and securing housing with a CityFHEPS voucher can take months, as it is often confusing, difficult to navigate, and entangled with communication gaps. In February 2023, I was looking for an apartment with the assistance of Homebase, which provided me with a transfer voucher. My caseworker informed me that once I find an apartment, I could begin the process of the move-in package-however did not give me any resources and my rights as a voucher holder. My caseworker was unresponsive most of the time.

  Within three months I found an apartment, however the landlord became impatient. In my experience, the landlord demanded updates to move into the apartment as soon as possible. If not, the landlord told me the apartment would be put back on the market. I needed to take action and was confused on how to navigate this process and my safety was in jeopardy where I was currently staying , which led me to document and file a source of income discrimination complaint to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, with the assistance of Neighbors Together. However, it was impossible to reach my caseworker or any other employee at Homebase about developing updates.

  Due to many communication gaps, I received advocacy from Neighbors Together, where the housing advocate was able to speak on my behalf and receive updates from the caseworker at Homebase on the process of moving with the CityFHEPS voucher. With this support, I was able to move into my apartment.

  DSS/HRA Commissioner Molly Parks stated during the January 2025 hearing that “The average application processing time for CityFHEPS housing packet is 25 days,” this is misleading information on move-in packets; my process took four months. My experience is not unique, I felt discouraged in this process of finding a home while working with HomeBase. Ending the Unit Hold Incentive puts voucher holders at a disadvantage for housing opportunities.

  The City MUST continue the Unit Hold Incentive to keep New Yorkers housed. All New Yorkers deserve a home that is their sanctuary —a safe and stable place that fosters their well-being. No one should be denied access to a home based on source of income discrimination, the unit holds incentive motivates landlords to rent an apartment, despite the agency’s misleading process time, which delayed my move-ins, and that of others into a home. Continue the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive for Landlords

  Comment attachment
  Khaliyl-Mayes-Public-Comment-for-CITYFHEPS-Unit-Hold-Removal-1.pdf

  Comment added November 4, 2025 2:20pm

• Eustacia Smith

  Thank you to the members of the HRA Rules Committee for the opportunity to provide comments.
  My name is Eustacia Smith and I am the Director of Advocacy at West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, which develops and operates low-income supportive housing for older adults and operates a shelter, providing 110 shelter beds to seniors.
  Every day, our staff directly assists our shelter residents with accessing safe and affordable permanent housing. The CityFHEPS rental assistance program has been a life-changing tool in helping our seniors move out of the shelter and into permanent housing. But we also know how complex and slow the process can be. Every step, from securing a shopping letter to final lease approval and payment, involves extensive paperwork, multiple agency reviews, and frequent delays that can stretch for weeks or even months. Unfortunately, many people who find an apartment, then end up losing it before they are able to move in, because the process takes so long and the landlord moves on to someone else who can pay right away.
  The Unit Hold incentive was created to solve this very problem. By offering landlords the equivalent of one month’s rent to hold the unit while the paperwork and inspections are completed, the City has helped keep thousands of apartments available for individuals and families using vouchers. It was a smart, cost-effective way to ensure that when a voucher household finally finds an apartment, they do not lose it because of City bureaucracy.
  Eliminating the Unit Hold incentive would reverse this progress. Without it, landlords have little reason to wait through long administrative delays, and many will once again refuse to rent to CityFHEPS tenants. That means more of our seniors will remain stuck in the shelter, even when they have a rental subsidy in hand. This is the wrong direction to go at a time when available housing in NYC is at an all-time low and the number of homeless older adults has skyrocketed.
  We need to help our seniors who have become homeless to move quickly into permanent housing. We urge the Administration to reinstate the Unit Hold incentive and to continue working with providers, advocates, and landlords to streamline the CityFHEPS process overall—so that this vital program can fulfill its promise of ending homelessness in New York City.
  Thank you for your time and for your commitment to supporting New Yorkers in need of a stable home.

  Comment attachment
  CityFHEPS-Unit-Hold-Rule-Change-Comments.pdf

  Comment added November 4, 2025 5:14pm

• Kate Goldmann, The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)

  Please see attached.

  Comment attachment
  20251105HRA-RuleChange-CityFHEPS.pdf

  Comment added November 5, 2025 9:08am

• Nathalie Interiano

  Hello. My name is Nathalie Interiano and I am the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Care For the Homeless (CFH). For over 40 years CFH has provided medical, behavioral health, and shelter services to New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. We operate 17 federally qualified health centers across all five boroughs and five shelters with on-site health centers. Our model is to reduce barriers to care while supporting residents with essential services to obtain stable and permanent housing.

  Our staff work every day to help our shelter residents find permanent housing through CityFHEPS, and the Unit Hold Incentive has been essential for successful placements. Once an appropriate unit is found, it can take on average from two to three months for the final approval and move-in, during which landlords must hold units without payment. With the signing bonus also recently eliminated, this one-month incentive is the only support keeping landlords engaged and ensuring our clients don’t lose housing opportunities.

  Over half of our successful housing placements this year have been through CityFHEPS, and all of them were made possible because of the Unit Hold Incentive. We are already hearing from landlords who say they will not participate in the program if this incentive is discontinued. Without it, our staff anticipate a significant drop in successful placements, and more of our residents will remain in shelter.

  We urge the City to reinstate the Unit Hold Incentive so that CityFHEPS can function as intended, which is to effectively help unhoused New Yorkers move out of shelter and into safe, stable, and permanent homes.

  Comment added November 5, 2025 10:41am

• Victoria Leahy, Homeless Services United

  Testimony has been attached as a PDF>

  Comment attachment
  11.5-Unit-Hold-Incentive-Testimony-.pdf

  Comment added November 5, 2025 11:06am

• Shiniqua Bryan

  Testimony Opposing the Elimination of the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive
  Good morning, and thank you to the members of the HRA Rules Committee for the opportunity to testify today.
  My name is Shiniqua Bryan, and I am a member of Neighbors Together, a community-based organization committed to ending hunger and poverty, and works with New Yorkers using housing vouchers to advocate for policies that will end source of income (SOI) discrimination and make vouchers effective tools for accessing housing.
  I have firsthand experience with how the CityFHEPS rental assistance program can be a life-changing tool—helping families move out of shelters and unsafe housing into permanent housing. However, it is also essential to know how complex and slow the process can be. Every step, from securing a shopping letter to obtaining final lease approval and processing payment. This process involves extensive paperwork, multiple agency reviews, and frequent delays that can stretch for weeks or even months. With my experience, I had the courage to share my experience on the news, and a landlord reached out to me, willing to rent to me, and was patient because of the unit hold incentive. This process took seven months, during which the program continued to make rental payments to both my former neglectful landlord and my new landlord.

  These delays have real consequences. Landlords often walk away during the waiting period, unwilling to keep a unit vacant while the CityFHEPS process plays out. The Unit Hold incentive was designed to address this very issue. By offering landlords the equivalent of one month’s rent to hold the unit while the paperwork and inspections are completed, the City has helped keep thousands of apartments available for individuals and families using vouchers. It was a smart, cost-effective way to ensure that when a voucher household finally finds an apartment, they do not lose it due to bureaucratic delays in the city.

  Eliminating the Unit Hold incentive would reverse this progress. Without it, landlords have little reason to wait through long administrative delays, and many will once again refuse to rent to CityFHEPS tenants. That means more individuals and families—many of them with children will remain stuck in shelters, even when they have a rental subsidy in hand. During my housing search, landlords preferred to participate in the CityFHEPS program because of the incentive. If this incentive were to disappear, there would be no hope of finding a permanent home through this program.

  In short, removing the Unit Hold incentive undermines the very goal of CityFHEPS: helping New Yorkers move quickly and sustainably into permanent housing. We urge the Administration to reinstate the Unit Hold incentive and continue working with providers, advocates, and landlords to streamline the CityFHEPS process, so that this vital program can fulfill its promise to end homelessness in New York City.

  Thank you for your time and for your commitment to supporting New Yorkers in need of a stable home.

  Sincerely,
  Shiniqua Bryan

  Comment attachment
  Shiniqua-Bryan-Testimony-Opposing-the-Elimination-of-the-CityFHEPS-Unit-Hold-Incentive.pdf

  Comment added November 5, 2025 1:14pm

• Valerie Barton-Richardson

  My name is Valerie Barton-Richardson, and I am the President and CEO of CAMBA, Inc., a non-profit community-based organization that provides services that connect people with opportunities to enhance their quality of life. Every day, our staff directly supports homeless New Yorkers to access and move into safe affordable homes.

  We have seen firsthand how the CityFHEPS rental assistance program can be a life-changing tool to help families move out of shelter and into permanent housing. But we also know how complex and slow the process can be. Every step, from securing a shopping letter to final lease approval and payment, involves extensive paperwork, multiple agency reviews, and frequent delays that can stretch for weeks or even months.

  These delays have real consequences. Landlords often walk away during the waiting period, unwilling to keep a unit vacant while the CityFHEPS process plays out. The Unit Hold incentive was created to solve this very problem. By offering landlords the equivalent of one month’s rent to hold the unit while the paperwork and inspections are completed, the City has helped keep thousands of apartments available for individuals and families using vouchers. It was a smart, cost-effective way to ensure that when a voucher household finally finds an apartment, they do not lose it because of City bureaucracy.

  The elimination of the unit hold incentive represents a false economy that will impose substantially greater costs on the City while prolonging shelter stays of homeless individuals and families. According to DSS data, this modest investment has proven remarkably effective, helping 22,000 people transition out of shelter using CityFHEPS in FY 2024 alone. By removing this critical tool, the City will force vulnerable families to remain in shelter for additional months at costs that far exceed a single month’s rent payment to landlords. We know that extended shelter stays will dramatically increase overall DHS budget pressures, ultimately costing taxpayers far more than the savings generated by eliminating unit hold incentives. Moreover, this decision ignores the rental market realities that landlords require meaningful incentives to accept vouchers given the significant processing delays inherent in the system. The system is being evaluated and is changing for efficiency, but it takes time to implement the changes. In essence, the City is abandoning a small, strategic investment that yields significant returns in moving families from expensive temporary placements into permanent housing precisely when such tools are needed most. Eliminating the Unit Hold incentive would reverse this progress. Without it, landlords have little reason to wait through long administrative delays, and many will once again refuse to rent to CityFHEPS tenants. That means more families will wait, even when they have a rental subsidy in hand.

  We have already heard from landlords who say they will not participate in the CityFHEPS program if this incentive disappears. Our own staff anticipate a significant drop in successful placements, especially for larger families and those seeking apartments in competitive rental markets.

  In short, removing the Unit Hold incentive undermines the very goal of CityFHEPS: helping New Yorkers move quickly and sustainably into permanent housing. We urge the Administration to reinstate the Unit Hold incentive and to continue working with providers, advocates, and landlords to streamline the CityFHEPS process overall—so that this vital program can fulfill its promise of moving people from homelessness to permanent stable housing in New York City.

  Thank you for your time and for your commitment to supporting New Yorkers in need of a stable home.

  Comment attachment
  CFHEPSUnitHold.pdf

  Comment added November 5, 2025 3:56pm

• Michael Bell

  Greetings, and thank you to the members of the HRA Rules Committee for the opportunity to share my testimony today. My name is Michael Bell, a single parent, a former CityFHEPS voucher holder, a Leader with Neighbors Together, and a Community Outreach Liaison who focuses on areas where people need assistance.

  I strongly oppose discontinuing the CityFHEPS Unit Hold Incentive. The CityFHEPS unit’s hold incentive is not a bonus; it is the linchpin that secures housing for our most vulnerable neighbors. For families and individuals emerging from shelter, the voucher application process can take weeks or months. Without the unit holding payment, a landlord faces significant vacancy loss during this waiting period. They will, understandably, choose an applicant who can move in immediately. From experience, I have lost seven apartments when I tried to use a CityFHEPS voucher. You have no idea what that emotional roller coaster feels like unless you have endured it as a CityFHEPS recipient. It got to the point where I expected to fail and became numb to the process. This was mainly due to administrative issues with the voucher, resulting in communication gaps and delays. It was a grueling and frustrating experience for both my daughter and me; we even got our hopes up, only to be let down once again. This will only increase if there is no hold incentive in place with an administration that moves slowly. You must consider the implications and the mental health burden for those impacted. Adults and children will suffer, and something like this could affect them psychologically long-term.

  The entire housing process, from the shelter housing specialist to keys in hand, is very slow and, in many cases, has a low success rate, given the actual ratio of apartments viewed to apartments secured. This is why the incentive shouldn’t be removed. I know other CityFHEPS voucher holders can attest to my experience, and for those who have this voucher, removing the unit hold incentive will only add to a currently burdensome situation.

  Eliminating the CityFHEPS Unit Hold incentive is counterproductive to the goal of securing a permanent home for individuals and families to transition out of homelessness. It pushes qualified, low-income New Yorkers back into the housing search, extending shelter stays, increasing the City’s long-term shelter costs, and subjecting children to prolonged trauma and instability. The unit hold incentive is a practical investment that encourages landlord participation and ensures that the CityFHEPS voucher—the City’s commonly used tool against homelessness—can actually be used to turn a key into a home. CityFHEPS unit hold incentive must not be removed.

  Thank you for your time and commitment to supporting low-income, working-class homeless New Yorkers in need of a stable home.

  Comment attachment
  Michael-Bell-CityFHEPS-Hold-Incentive-Public-Comment.pdf

  Comment added November 5, 2025 5:23pm