•  Summary 
  •  
  •  Actions 
  •  
  •  Committee Votes 
  •  
  •  Floor Votes 
  •  
  •  Memo 
  •  
  •  Text 
  •  
  •  LFIN 
  •  
  •  Chamber Video/Transcript 

A01037 Summary:

BILL NOA01037
 
SAME ASSAME AS S02660
 
SPONSORWalker
 
COSPNSRDe Los Santos, Lucas, Simon, Taylor, Forrest
 
MLTSPNSR
 
 
Relates to protecting the rights of current and converted Mitchell-Lama residents.
Go to top    

A01037 Actions:

BILL NOA01037
 
01/13/2023referred to housing
01/03/2024referred to housing
Go to top

A01037 Memo:

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A1037
 
SPONSOR: Walker
  TITLE OF BILL: An act relating to protecting the rights of current and converted Mitc- hell-Lama residents   PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: This bill would require the New York City Department of Housing to designate an independent agency or office, with no financial or working relationship with the owners, management companies, and co-op boards should be responsible for reviewing and investigating complaints filed by all Mitchell-Lama residents. This independent agency or office should be empowered to receive, investigate, mediate, hear, make findings and recommend action, and decide on complaints against landlords, managing agents, co-op boards. When relevant, the independent agency or office will also adjudicate complaints filed by residents, against the units or departments within the New York City Housing Preservation and Develop- ment and Division of Housing and Community Renewal that currently super- vise their Mitchell-Lama developments. Residents who allege abuse of authority or lack of response to their complaints, should be granted a process to have complaints and grievances heard and resolved fairly and in an unbiased manner. An independent agency's or office's invest inves- tigative staff should conduct their investigations in an impartial fash- ion, make a recommendation and/or decision regarding the resident complaint. Any recommendation or decision in the resident's favor should also provide guidance to the resident directing them how to enforce the independent agency's or office's decision. That independent agency or office should then forward their official findings and decisions to the NYS DHCR Commissioner, who has jurisdiction over all Mitchell-Lama hous- ing companies in New York City and New York State.   JUSTIFICATION: The Mitchell-Lama program provides affordable rental and cooperative housing to moderate-and middle-income families. The program was spon- sored by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred Lama, and was signed into law in 1955, and is regulated by Article 2 and Article 4 of the Private Housing Finance Laws of New York State. There are both New York City supervised Mitchell-Lama developments (HPD), and New York State supervised Mitchell-Lama developments (DHCR). In New York City, there are 97 HPD-supervised Mitchell-Lama .rental and limited-eq- uity cooperative developments, with more than 45,300 total units, Each development is administered by either a Board of Directors (cooper- atives) or a Managing Agent (rental and cooperatives). When filing a complaint against a landlord, co-op board or management agent, residents in city supervised Mitchell-Lamas are left with no alternative than to contact HPD's Mitchell-Lama Unit, who has no estab- lished procedures for resident complaints, official reviews, determi- nations, findings and appeals process of HPD's decisions. Even if a process was to be implemented, the agency would be hard pressed to decide against a landlord, co-op board or management agency because of the co-dependent, financial relationship that exists between HPD, and the owners/managing agents. In state supervised Mitchell-Lamas developments under the jurisdiction of the NYS Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR), residents can file complaints against a landlord, co-op board or managing agent via a toll-free hotline. DHCR's Office of Housing Management is the department selected to respond to those complaints. According to established proce- dures, those residents can register complaints about their rents, their apartments, building, or complex twenty-four hours per day. Although the New York State DHCR has a process to accept or solicit a complaint from a resident, there are no procedures established for findings, recommen- dations, decisions and appeals. As a result, the DHCR "complaint proc- ess" is useless to the residents. Because HPD and DHCR representatives often work directly with develop- ers, owners and managing agents on a variety of development projects, this relationship creates a conflict of interest when reviewing complaints against landlords, managing agents and co-op boards.   PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: 2017-2018: A7366 - Referred to Housing 2019-2020: A6217 - Referred to Housing 2021-2022: A4491 - Referred to Housing.   FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: To be determined.   EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately.
Go to top

A01037 Text:



 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                          1037
 
                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                    January 13, 2023
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced  by  M.  of A. WALKER, DE LOS SANTOS, LUCAS, SIMON, TAYLOR --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Housing
 
        AN ACT relating to protecting the rights of current and converted  Mitc-
          hell-Lama residents
 
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Protecting the rights of current  and  converted  Mitchell-
     2  Lama  residents.  1.  New  York  State  Homes  and Community Renewal, in
     3  consultation with the New York City Department of Housing  Preservation,
     4  shall  appoint an independent agency or office, which will solicit resi-
     5  dent complaints and will provide unbiased grievance and complaint proce-
     6  dures that are consistent with the administrative procedures act.    The
     7  independent  agency  or  office will handle all Mitchell-Lama complaints
     8  including, but not limited to, the following:
     9    a. owner/management company/co-op board harassment and abuse;
    10    b. enjoying the benefit of unnecessarily and  financially  unsupported
    11  rent/carrying charge increases;
    12    c.   failure  to  adequately  reconcile  tenant  rent/carrying  charge
    13  records;
    14    d. failure to provide essential services on a consistent basis;
    15    e. failure to provide a decent, sanitary and safe living environment;
    16    f. failure to hold open and transparent co-op board elections;
    17    g. failure to notify and include all residents of building/development
    18  conversions; and
    19    h. failure to lower rents/carrying  charges  for  eligible  residents,
    20  when  a  subsidy  program that is already in development will lower that
    21  resident's rent/carrying charges.
    22    2. The practice of approving refinancing and/or conversion  "windfall"
    23  deals  shall be eliminated unless the ownership, managing agents, co-ops
    24  boards, the New York city supervised  Mitchell-Lama  developments  (HPD)
    25  and  the New York state supervised Mitchell-Lama developments (DHCR) can
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04606-01-3

        A. 1037                             2
 
     1  produce verified financial  documentation  from  the  comptroller  which
     2  accounts  for every dollar spent during the ten year period prior to the
     3  application for refinancing and/or conversion.
     4    3.  All  rent  and  carrying charge increases approved by HPD and DHCR
     5  shall receive final approval from the respective New York  city  or  New
     6  York  state  comptroller  and  he  or  she shall have certified that the
     7  increase is financially necessary and supported by  a  comptroller-veri-
     8  fied financial review of expenses, assets and income.
     9    4.  Unless  the comptroller with the jurisdiction officially agrees to
    10  monitor and confirm the validity and  accuracy  of  future  expenses  or
    11  losses,  owners  and  co-op boards shall not be permitted to continue to
    12  receive rent/carrying charge increases based on those projections.
    13    5. Unless a resident's household income confirms that  he  or  she  is
    14  subject to a surcharge, there shall be no audit surcharges.
    15    6.  Legal representation and adequate pro se litigant support shall be
    16  provided by the state of  New  York  for  litigants  in  landlord/tenant
    17  cases.
    18    7.  A  comprehensive help desk shall be provided by the supreme courts
    19  of the state of New York to support pro se litigants.
    20    8. Judges and court staff with knowledge and experience with the Mitc-
    21  hell-Lama law and regulations shall oversee  all  Mitchell-Lama  related
    22  cases.
    23    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Go to top