“As Washington commits to callous austerity, Mayor-elect Mamdani must devote himself to strengthening New York’s safety nets and prioritizing domestic violence survivors in all housing and homelessness response plans, who are often left out.”
One of New Destiny Housing’s buildings. (Photo by Zeny Gatdula)
On a historic election day, New Yorkers turned out in droves to choose a new leader for our city—Zohran Mamdani will take office on Jan. 1 after running a campaign that was laser-focused on addressing the affordability and housing crisis that has plagued New York City for years. For domestic violence survivors like me, these issues are especially urgent.
Domestic violence is the number one reason for family homelessness in New York City, and financial abuse, where our credit is ruined or access to income is blocked by our abusers, often leaves us at a terrible disadvantage when trying to find a safe home that we can escape to quickly and then afford.
With the sudden disinvestment of proven, life-saving housing assistance programs by the federal government, and the very real threat of further cuts, many of us may be left without the means to pay our rent. As Washington commits to callous austerity, Mayor-elect Mamdani must devote himself to strengthening New York’s safety nets and prioritizing domestic violence survivors in all housing and homelessness response plans, who are often left out.
The first and most crucial step Mamdani must take as mayor is fixing and investing in CityFHEPS, the city’s rental subsidy program. Any cuts from Washington will fall squarely on federal rental assistance programs, as they’ve already done with the Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV), which were abruptly defunded by the federal government earlier this year and could cause nearly 8,000 New Yorkers to lose their housing.
The New York City Housing Authority has found a solution to help a number of these households, but thousands of New Yorkers continue to face this frightening countdown to the end of their rental assistance. This is not something that we can allow—I personally know many survivors who have only been able to find a permanent home thanks to an EHV. If families lose access to this funding, many survivors will be forced back to shelter, onto the street, or even back with our abusers, further deepening the homelessness crisis in our city and putting survivors in harm’s way.
CityFHEPS offers a promising solution to this impending problem, but only if it is fixed. The City Council has long realized this, having voted to allow people living outside of shelters to access CityFHEPS vouchers and overriding Mayor Adams’ veto to protect program participants from rent increases. Mayor-elect Mamdani now has a prime opportunity to reverse Adams’ policy and usher in a voucher program that better works for New Yorkers.
By removing eligibility hurdles, keeping unit-hold incentives, and extending shopping letter duration, which routinely cut survivors off from housing, frustrate landlords holding apartments, and hold New Yorkers in shelter months longer than necessary, the future mayor can demonstrate his commitment to ensuring that every New Yorker has a safe home.
But CityFHEPS isn’t the only way to help survivors find housing. New York also needs to increase the supply of supportive housing. While Mamdani committed to building more housing and making it more affordable, he did not have plans specifically focused on supportive housing, which provides services alongside affordable housing to New Yorkers in need of additional support to find stability. This is an incredibly effective tool that has helped many survivors—including me—get back on their feet.
Last year, Mayor Adams expanded New York City’s supportive housing program, NYC 15/15, to include domestic violence survivors with children. It was a long overdue first step to join the state in recognizing that some survivors need long-term support for themselves and their children to recover from the trauma. But that expansion didn’t cover survivors without kids. I urge the mayor-elect to commit to expanding NYC 15/15 supportive housing for single survivors too, and continue to expand investment in supportive housing overall to better meet the needs of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.
In a country where nearly one in three women, and one in 10 men, have experienced some form of domestic violence, we are a constituency that cannot be ignored. As Washington shirks its duties to domestic violence survivors and everyone else that benefits from housing assistance programs, Mayor-elect Mamdani has a chance to be a true housing champion and a lifesaver for the thousands of domestic violence survivors who need to escape but can’t find an affordable place to live.
Now is the time for him to demonstrate he truly cares about survivors—supporting safe homes for us is the way to do it.
Nicole Campbell is a domestic violence survivor, supportive housing tenant, and a member of New Destiny Housing’s Survivor Voices Project.
The post Opinion: Protecting Domestic Violence Survivors Means Investing in Their Housing appeared first on City Limits.
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