New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani decided to appeal a state appeals court order requiring the city to expand its CityFHEPS housing voucher program. The decision reverses a campaign pledge in which Mamdani said he would drop the court challenge and ensure the expansion proceeded as scheduled.

The city faces a $5.4 billion budget deficit, and Mamdani has said the expansion of CityFHEPS would cost more than $4 billion over the next few years. When he took office in January, Mamdani said the city's fiscal situation was worse than expected. He pledged to continue negotiating with the city council on a settlement to the lawsuit at the center of the dispute.

In 2023, the city council approved a legislative package to increase voucher access by raising the income eligibility threshold and eliminating the shelter residency requirement. Then-Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the bills, saying they could saddle taxpayers with billions of dollars each year and exceed the council's legal authority. The council overrode the veto, but Adams refused to implement the laws, prompting a lawsuit from people seeking rental assistance. A lower court sided with Adams, but in July 2025, a New York state appeals court ruled the city must expand the program. The appeals court granted the Adams administration leave to appeal.

The Department of Social Services launched CityFHEPS in 2018. The program has helped more than 123,000 people find permanent housing, according to a January report from the state comptroller. The cost of the program increased from $176 million in 2019 to a projected $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2025.

Christine Quinn, president and CEO of WIN and a former city council member, criticized the decision. "It's a classic example of a political promise made and a promise broken and really a betrayal of the homeless and unhoused community in New York who took him at his word," Quinn said. She added: "Parties in the lawsuit and supporters have made clear to the Mamdani administration, 'We're prepared to negotiate.'"

According to a 2023 report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, less than 1% of families who exit New York homeless shelters with a subsidy re-enter a shelter within one year, compared with 15% of families who exit without subsidies. Vincent Reina, a professor in the University of Pennsylvania's department of city and regional planning, said in an interview: "For low-income households this kind of benefit can really be a lifeline." Reina noted, however, that the program carries fiscal trade-offs. "That doesn't mean you should not do it, right? But it does mean that there are budgetary implications," he said.