Mayor Calls on State to Increase Aid for Domestic Violence Survivors
(DNAINFO) Jeff Mays | March 23, 2016 — The state Assembly is in favor of the change.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Senate to expand a rental assistance program to include victims of domestic violence.
The Family Eviction Prevention Subsidy is a state program that provides up to five years rental assistance to families to help keep them from losing their home. But under current state guidelines, domestic violence victims who leave their home are not eligible.
“A family fleeing their home for their safety is not considered a family that’s been evicted,” said the mayor at a City Hall roundtable discussion on the issue. “People who literally are in danger, maybe they don’t go through the traditional dynamic of eviction in their dealing with landlords, but they’re having the exact same outcome: They suddenly don’t have a home.”