CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel blocks NYC rental housing program that relocates homeless New Yorkers to upstate NY counties, including Chautauqua County.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is giving New Yorkers the ability to use rental assistance vouchers around the state to help with the homeless crisis.
But Wendel is taking action to prevent the use of any city "Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement" vouchers in his county.
"This was a last minute bomb dropped in our laps and now the 57 counties have to figure something out while the five counties in the largest city of this country and possibly the world are dumping their problems on our lap,” Wendel says.
Wendel says homelessness across the state is a growing concern.
“And to put this burden on other countries when it's not our own problem and we have our own problem is very disappointing,” he says.
In a statement Mayor Adams said:
"These reforms will give longtime New Yorkers the ability to move out of our city's shelter system to other parts of the state with more affordable housing options, while simultaneously opening up space in our city's shelter system for the approximately 10,000 migrants who continue to arrive in the city seeking shelter month after month."
Adams says people applying for the program would have to work at least ten hours a week something Wendel says could cause further problems.
"How are you going to maintain working 10 hours a week if you move from New York City to Chautauqua County unless we have a job here lined up, but that would be something different,” Wendel says.
The New York State Association of counties says the announcement of the rental assistance voucher program is a direct extension of the federal government's failure to address the migrant crisis.
The Association says in a statement:
"The solution to this crisis rests squarely at the feet of the federal government where it began. We need leadership from the state and federal government to help local leaders address the affordable housing and asylum seeker crisis that prompted this action by the City of New York."
7 News reporter Yoselin Person reached out to several of those counties.
A spokesman for Erie County says in a statement they are reviewing the potential impact and legality of Mayor Adams’ announcement.
"The Erie County Department of Social Services is currently analyzing the potential impact and legality of this new policy announcement from New York."
