NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A819
SPONSOR: Gibbs
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public housing law and the New York city charter, in
relation to authorizing the New York city council to oversee the activ-
ities of the New York city housing authority
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This legislation grants the New York City Council greater oversight over
the activities of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) by giving
the council the ability to mandate that NYCHA produce reports and
provide information to the Council.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends the public housing law by adding a new section 402d
that gives the NYC Council the power to mandate that NYCHA produce
reports about any of its operations by passing a local law. Such a local
law shall determine the information to be included in the report, wheth-
er it is a recurring report or not, and to whom it will be issued. The
commissioner of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal shall be
given copies of any such reports, and the reports shall be treated as
public documents.Section two amends section twenty-nine of the NYC Char-
ter by granting the NYC Council the same oversight powers over NYCHA
that it currently has over any agency of the NYC government. Section
three sets an effective date of thirty days after this act shall have
become law.
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
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JUSTIFICATION:
NYCHA is the largest housing authority in the United States, and its
over 179,000 units are home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers, which
represents almost 5% of the population of New York City as a whole.
Unfortunately, the local elected legislators representing these resi-
dents have little oversight powers over NYCHA. While NYCHA as an entity
is chartered under State law, the Mayor of NYC has complete control over
its board, appointing all seven members and choosing the chair at his or
her discretion. Essentially NYCHA functions as an agency of NYC, but the
ability of the Council to oversee the operations of NYCHA are strictly
limited because it was established as an authority by the State. This
legislation is meant to grant the NYC Council and its members greater
oversight powers over NYCHA. This bill would grant the NYC Council the
same power to review the operations of NYCHA on a continuous basis that
it has over city agencies. The legislation would also give the NYC coun-
cil the power to mandate the creation of reports by NYCHA through the
passage of a local law. Currently the NYC Council cannot mandate that
NYCHA produce any reports on its operations.
Giving the local elected legislators of NYCHA's residents greater powers
to oversee the Authori- ties operations will increase the voice of resi-
dents and hopefully make NYCHA's operations more transparent.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A8968 2017/18 referred to housing, A3610 2019/20, A2319 2020/21, A9414
2021/22
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
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EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have
become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
819
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 11, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GIBBS, TAYLOR, GLICK, REYES -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Housing
AN ACT to amend the public housing law and the New York city charter, in
relation to authorizing the New York city council to oversee the
activities of the New York city housing authority
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public housing law is amended by adding a new section
2 402-g to read as follows:
3 § 402-g. New York city council oversight. The New York city council
4 as established in section twenty-one of the New York city charter is
5 empowered to mandate that the New York city housing authority produce
6 reports about any facets of its operations or the condition of the
7 projects under its management, including any project based section eight
8 voucher developments in which the authority has an ownership stake,
9 through the passage of a local law. Such a law shall determine which
10 information is to be included in the report, the deadline for the
11 production of the report, whether the reporting mandate applies once or
12 is recurring, and which local authorities shall receive copies. A copy
13 of any such reports must be provided to the commissioner and shall be
14 considered an agency document for the purposes of article six of the
15 public officers law.
16 § 2. Subdivision a of section 29 of the New York city charter, as
17 added by a vote of the people of the city of New York at the general
18 election held in November 1989, is amended to read as follows:
19 a. The council, acting as a committee of the whole, and each standing
20 or special committee of the council, through hearings or otherwise:
21 1. [may] May investigate any matters within its jurisdiction relating
22 to the property, affairs, or government of the city or of any county
23 within the city, or to any other powers of the council, or to the effec-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01902-01-3
A. 819 2
1 tuation of the purposes or provisions of this charter or any laws relat-
2 ing to the city or to any county within the city.
3 2. [shall] Shall review on a regular and continuous basis the activ-
4 ities of the agencies of the city, including their service goals and
5 performance and management efficiency. Each unit of appropriation in
6 the adopted budget of the city shall be assigned to a standing commit-
7 tee. Each standing committee of the council shall hold at least one
8 hearing each year relating to the activities of each of the agencies
9 under its jurisdiction.
10 3. Shall review on a regular and continuous basis the activities of
11 the New York city housing authority, including the service goals,
12 performance and management efficiency of such authority. Such authority
13 shall be assigned to a standing committee. Such standing committee of
14 the council shall hold at least one hearing each year relating to the
15 activities of the New York city housing authority.
16 § 3. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
17 have become a law.