STATE OF NEW YORK
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1010
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 5, 2011
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Introduced by Sens. STEWART-COUSINS, ADAMS, ADDABBO, DIAZ, DILAN,
HASSELL-THOMPSON, HUNTLEY, KLEIN, KRUEGER, PARKER, PERALTA, PERKINS,
SAVINO, SERRANO, SQUADRON, STAVISKY -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Housing,
Construction and Community Development
AN ACT to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seven-
ty-four, in relation to limited-profit housing companies and other
buildings or structures which received project-based rental assistance
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative findings and declaration of emergency. The
2 legislature hereby finds and declares that the serious public emergency
3 which led to the enactment of the existing laws regulating residential
4 rents and evictions continues to exist; that such laws would better
5 serve the public interest if certain changes were made thereto, includ-
6 ing extending to certain cities, towns and villages the authority to
7 provide for the regulation of rents and evictions with regard to housing
8 accommodations that cease or have ceased to be regulated pursuant to
9 article 2 of the private housing finance law, known as the Mitchell-Lama
10 law, or pursuant to project-based section eight contracts entered into
11 with the federal government.
12 The legislature further recognizes that severe disruption of the
13 rental housing market has occurred and threatens to be exacerbated as a
14 result of the abrupt termination of rent and eviction regulation when
15 buildings exit the Mitchell-Lama program or when buildings cease to be
16 subject to project-based section eight contracts. The situation had
17 permitted speculative and profiteering practices and has brought about
18 the loss of vital and irreplaceable affordable housing for working
19 persons and families.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04041-01-1
S. 1010 2
1 The legislature therefore declares that in order to prevent uncertain-
2 ty, potential hardship and dislocation of tenants living in housing
3 accommodations subject to government regulations as to rentals and
4 continued occupancy as well as those not subject to such regulations,
5 the provisions of this act are necessary to protect the public health,
6 safety and general welfare. The necessity in the public interest for the
7 provisions hereinafter enacted is hereby declared as a matter of legis-
8 lative determination.
9 § 2. Section 5 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974 consti-
10 tuting the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four is
11 amended by adding a new subdivision c to read as follows:
12 c. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, nothing shall
13 prevent the declaration of an emergency pursuant to section three of
14 this act for rental housing accommodations located in buildings or
15 structures completed or substantially renovated as family units on or
16 after January first, nineteen hundred seventy-four: (i) which have or
17 had been owned, leased or operated by a company established or operating
18 under article two of the private housing finance law, other than a mutu-
19 al company, and which are no longer owned, leased or operated by such
20 company by reason of a voluntary dissolution pursuant to section thir-
21 ty-five of such law or (ii) which were defined as covered projects
22 pursuant to section 8 of the United States housing act of nineteen thir-
23 ty-seven, as amended, or any successor statute, and any regulations
24 promulgated thereunder in which rental housing accommodations received
25 project-based rental assistance from the United States department of
26 housing and urban development pursuant to contracts with the owners of
27 such buildings or structures which expired or were terminated. The
28 initial legal regulated rent for housing accommodations located in
29 buildings or structures that have or had been owned, leased or operated
30 by housing companies or that were covered projects previously regulated
31 under the private housing finance law or under federal law, shall be the
32 rent charged to and paid by the tenant in occupancy on January first,
33 two thousand seven or, for accommodations vacant on such date, the most
34 recent rent charged to and paid by a tenant prior to such date, includ-
35 ing any income-related surcharges, as adjusted by all applicable guide-
36 lines increases and other increases authorized by law, notwithstanding
37 any written lease or agreement between the tenant and the landlord
38 establishing or agreeing to any increases in rent on or after January
39 first, two thousand seven, provided no landlord shall be required to
40 refund any rent paid by a tenant in excess of such adjusted rent.
41 § 3. The provisions of subdivision a of section 9 of the emergency
42 tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four or of subdivision a of
43 section 26-513 of the administrative code of the city of New York shall
44 not apply to any housing accommodation which became subject to the emer-
45 gency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four pursuant to the
46 provisions of subdivision c of section 5 of section 4 of chapter 576 of
47 the laws of 1974, as added by section two of this act, or to any such
48 housing accommodation otherwise subject to the emergency tenant
49 protection act of nineteen seventy-four by reason of its location in a
50 building completed or substantially renovated as family units prior to
51 January first, nineteen hundred seventy-four.
52 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to housing
53 accommodations located in buildings or structures owned by housing
54 companies that dissolved on, before or after such date and to housing
55 accommodations in buildings or structures that were covered projects and
56 had contracts for rental assistance that expired or were terminated on,
S. 1010 3
1 before or after such date; provided that the amendments to section 5 of
2 the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four made by
3 section two of this act shall expire on the same date as such act
4 expires and shall not affect the expiration of such act as provided in
5 section 17 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974.