Expands eligibility for loans and grants pursuant to the resilient retrofits loan and grant program for private sewer repairs and upgrades; establishes the resilient retrofits loan and grant fund.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5191REVISED 3/18/25
SPONSOR: Anderson TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law and the state finance law, in relation
to expanding eligibility for participation in the resilient retrofits
loan and grant program and establishing the resilient retrofit loan and
grant fund
PURPOSE:
To provide backed up private sewers in multiple dwellings and single
family residences access to needed funding for sewer line replacement
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds a new section 29k to the executive law to extend the
resilient retrofits loans and grant program expansion. The division of
housing and community renewal, in conjunction with the comptroller, Home
Headquarters, Inc., and community development Long Island (CDLI), shall
establish and administer the resilient retrofits loan and grant program.
The program would provide low to no interest loans for hazard miti-
gation, cleanups, and upgrades of private sewers and cover 80 percent of
the cost of such upgrades.
Section 2 establishes a fund for the program and maintains criteria for
public expenditures of such fund.
Ssection 3 is the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
There are unsafe sewers in New York City communities. More support is
sorely needed for private sewer repairs, cleanups, and upgrades. This
measure will help protect the safety, financial stability, and housing
security of homeowners, and uphold the rights of residents to a clean
and healthy environment. NYC has historically invested less money and
resources in Black, Brown, and immigrant communities, which now face
greater risks of flooding and sewage backups. Queens residents consist-
ently make the most backup calls to DEP of any borough, and in 2022
alone had over 4,000 backup complaints involving private sewer issues.
East Elmhurst has an area of about 35 homes on a public sewer line that
faces chronic backups. Many residents have serious health issues like
illnesses and infections, and many do not have insurance. Most could
benefit from the installation of mechanisms like automatic backwater
valves, which would cost $10k per home. Residents also currently cover
the costs of cleaning and repairing flood damage, which can range up to
$33k for a serious backup. Providing another $10k per home for various
repairs, upgrades, and cleanup costs would make a massive difference.
Total initial estimate of $700k. South Jamaica has a community of 20
homes connected on a failing private sewer line that needs frequent
repair and maintenance (roughly $10k per year in total).
DEP has pledged to build a public line for this area within 3-4 years.
Residents must make 'lateral' connections to the public line, which cost
$15k per house, for a total estimate of $310k, and that money, many
residents cannot and will not be able to afford. This bill is one remedy
with a compelling government interests that can and will alleviate
parens patriae issues in addition to mitigating risks to public health
in the region.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2025/26 - A05191
2023/24 - A09342
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
The state will need to allocate 20 million dollars for this fund.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become law. Effective immediately, the amendment, addition and/or repeal
of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act
on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed on or
before such an effective date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5191
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 12, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ANDERSON -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Housing
AN ACT to amend the executive law and the state finance law, in relation
to expanding eligibility for participation in the resilient retrofits
loan and grant program and establishing the resilient retrofit loan
and grant fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 29-k
2 to read as follows:
3 § 29-k. Resilient retrofits loan and grant program expansion. 1. For
4 the purposes of this section, "division" shall mean the division of
5 housing and community renewal.
6 2. The division of housing and community renewal, in conjunction with
7 the comptroller, Home HeadQuarters, Inc., and community development Long
8 Island (CDLI), shall establish and administer the resilient retrofits
9 loan and grant program as provided in this section.
10 3. (a) The resilient retrofit loan and program shall provide low or
11 no-interest loans to individual property owners to provide financing for
12 hazard mitigation and resilience projects, including but not limited to
13 repairs, cleanups, and upgrades of private sewers in multiple dwellings
14 and single-family homes where the sewer capacity for such private sewers
15 has been exceeded. Such loans may be attached to property taxes, allow-
16 ing for the property to be sold so long as the new owner agrees to
17 assume the debt obligation.
18 (b) Loans provided under this section may be used to satisfy the non-
19 federal match for federal mitigation grants.
20 4. (a) Resilient New York revolving loan program shall provide grants
21 to individual property owners to provide financing for hazard mitigation
22 and resilience projects, including but not limited to construction and
23 maintenance of flood and/or back-up private sewer lines in multiple
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06087-01-5
A. 5191 2
1 dwellings and single-family homes where the sewer capacity for such
2 private sewers has been exceeded.
3 (b) Grants provided under this section shall finance, at a minimum,
4 eighty percent of the cost of hazard mitigation and resilience projects
5 described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision.
6 5. (a) The division shall establish application procedures and eligi-
7 bility criteria for loans and grants from the resilient retrofits loan
8 and grant fund established pursuant to section ninety-nine-ss of the
9 state finance law. Such eligibility criteria shall require that individ-
10 ual property owner applicants demonstrate:
11 (i) A need for a loan or grant to address hazard mitigation; and
12 (ii) The ability to repay the loan, if required, at a later date.
13 (b) Loans provided pursuant to this section shall be for a fixed peri-
14 od.
15 (c) The resilient retrofits loan and grant program shall also provide
16 graduated forgivability available to eligible individual property owner
17 recipients that shall, at a minimum, provide fifty percent loan forgive-
18 ness for eligible households with annual income equal to or less than
19 two hundred fifty thousand dollars per year.
20 6. Such program shall be in addition to any funds provided by the
21 federal government and expended or provided through the division for
22 disaster recovery and relief.
23 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-ss to
24 read as follows:
25 § 99-ss. Resilient retrofits loan and grant fund. 1. There is hereby
26 established in the joint custody of the state comptroller and the
27 commissioner of the division of housing and community renewal a special
28 fund to be known as the "resilient retrofit loan and grant fund" to be
29 administered in accordance with this section and section twenty-nine-k
30 of the executive law.
31 2. The fund shall consist of all moneys appropriated for its purpose,
32 all moneys transferred to such fund pursuant to law, any repayments of
33 principal and interest from the resilient retrofit loan and grant
34 program administered pursuant to section twenty-nine-k of the executive
35 law, and all other moneys required by this section or any other law to
36 be paid into or credited to this fund.
37 3. Moneys in such fund shall be kept separate from and shall not be
38 commingled with any other moneys in the custody of the comptroller or
39 the commissioner of taxation and finance. Any moneys of the fund not
40 required for immediate use may, at the discretion of the comptroller, in
41 consultation with the director of the budget, be invested by the comp-
42 troller in obligations of the United States or the state, or in obli-
43 gations the principal and interest on which are guaranteed by the United
44 States or by the state. Any income earned by the investment of such
45 moneys shall be added to and become a part of and shall be used for the
46 purposes of such fund.
47 4. Moneys expended from such fund shall be used to supplement and not
48 supplant or replace any other available recovery or relief funds,
49 including federal or state funding, which would otherwise have been
50 expended for reimbursement or appropriated to local governments for
51 natural hazard mitigation or resilience projects.
52 5. The moneys of the fund shall be paid out, without appropriation, on
53 the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified or
54 approved by the commissioner of the division of housing and community
55 renewal as provided in section twenty-nine-k of the executive law. The
56 comptroller shall, in consultation with the commissioner of the division
A. 5191 3
1 of housing and community renewal, prescribe by regulation the manner in
2 which moneys of the fund shall be distributed to eligible applicants.
3 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
4 have become a law. Effective immediately, the amendment, addition and/or
5 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
6 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
7 on or before such effective date.
