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Liberal members of the City Council are advocating for a new bill aimed at automatically enrolling residents, including undocumented immigrants, into social benefit programs.
Council member Crystal Hudson is championing this initiative, which proposes that the Department of Social Services utilize tax data, social services records, and other governmental databases to identify qualifying New Yorkers. These individuals would be enrolled in “city-created benefit programs” without needing to submit an application.
Although the proposal’s financial implications are anticipated to be substantial, neither the lawmakers nor Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration have provided an estimate of how much this automatic enrollment program would ultimately cost taxpayers.
“We all strive to do the right thing, but the bureaucratic system often complicates these efforts,” Hudson remarked during a City Council hearing on Wednesday, where the bill was under discussion.
Under the proposed legislation, the department would be required to notify individuals about their enrollment in specific programs. This notification would include details about the benefits offered, any related costs, necessary steps to finalize enrollment, and the option to opt out if desired.
Hudson argued the bill is needed because many people never make it through the city’s red tape. She pointed to Fair Fares, a program that offers half-priced subway and bus rides for low-income New Yorkers, where only about 37% of eligible riders were enrolled as of late 2025.
“I’m trying to help you help New Yorkers,” Hudson told Department of Social Services officials who testified at the hearing.
“I think with a little chutzpah and imagination — and with the right investments — we could make it happen.”
But the council’s own Fiscal Impact Statement concedes lawmakers do not know what the bill would cost.
The Finance Division wrote that the legislation “may necessitate increased funding for the Department of Social Services, but currently there is not sufficient information available to assess the cost.”
The city’s Office of Management and Budget also did not provide an estimate.
The bill is cosponsored by a slate of Progressive Caucus members and allies, including Lincoln Restler, Julie Won, Carmen De La Rosa, Gale Brewer, Shahana Hanif, Harvey Epstein and Farah Louis.
At a City Council hearing Wednesday, HRA Chief Program Officer Rebecca Chew said the administration is still reviewing the proposal, including budget considerations, and she raised alarms about privacy and consent.
She warned that benefits eligibility often hinges on sensitive information — from immigration status and income to pregnancy, HIV status and domestic violence history — and that building a centralized auto-enrollment database could clash with state and federal privacy rules.
The bill does not name specific programs, but it applies to any city-created benefit administered by the social services commissioner.
That definition could cover Fair Fares, which is open to illegal immigrants as well as other New York residents.
It could also reach city-run guaranteed income pilots, some of which accept illegal immigrants.
Depending on how the bill is interpreted, it might even apply to CityFHEPS, the rental assistance program whose costs have more than tripled in recent years, from about $500 million in fiscal 2023 to a projected $1.7 billion in 2026.
If CityFHEPS were pulled into automatic enrollment, the price of a bill that already lacks a fiscal estimate could snowball.
Speaker Julie Menin signaled support for auto-enrollment in Fair Fares, but stopped short of explicitly endorsing Hudson’s legislation, which would mandate automatic enrollment across the full range of city-created benefit programs administered by DSS.
“Speaker Menin strongly supports expanding access to Fair Fares, which provides targeted relief to riders in a way that budget watchdogs agree is cost-efficient.” a spokesperson for Menin told The Post. “Following today’s testimony, the Speaker will consider feedback from all stakeholders as Council Member Hudson’s bill moves through the legislative process.”
Hudson’s blank-check bill lands as Gotham is already staring down a budget crisis with city agencies ordered to trim costs amid a projected $5.4 billion budget shortfall for fiscal year 2026 and a $10.4 billion shortfall looming in fiscal year 2027, according to estimates from the city comptroller’s office.
Hudson did not respond to an inquiry from The Post.