Relates to eliminating rent for homeless shelters; provides that a homeless individual or family applying for or receiving temporary housing assistance shall not be required to pay room and board or contribute any earned or unearned income, available benefits or resources to eliminate their need for temporary housing assistance or as a condition to receive temporary housing assistance from such provider.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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3414
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 31, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. MYRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Social Services
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to eliminating rent
for homeless shelters; and to repeal certain provisions of such law
relating thereto
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 36-c of the social services law is REPEALED.
2 § 2. Section 131 of the social services law is amended by adding two
3 new subdivisions 21 and 22 to read as follows:
4 21. The office of temporary and disability assistance shall prohibit
5 any publicly funded provider of temporary housing assistance, including
6 but not limited to those defined in subdivision sixteen of section one
7 hundred thirty-one-a of this title from requiring recipients of such
8 assistance to participate in work activities, including but not limited
9 to those defined in section three hundred thirty-six of this chapter, as
10 a condition to receive temporary housing assistance from such provider.
11 22. a. Any temporary housing assistance provider found to be collect-
12 ing income, room and board or any other type of contribution in
13 violation of subdivision sixteen of section one hundred thirty-one-a of
14 this title, shall, after notice and an opportunity to be heard by the
15 department, be required to return any funds collected in violation of
16 this section to such recipient and may be subject to a civil penalty not
17 to exceed five hundred dollars for each violation. The department shall
18 adopt procedures in accordance with the state administrative procedure
19 act for assessment of penalties pursuant to this section. Such procedure
20 shall include the opportunity for an administrative appeal. Any provider
21 found to have violated this section and who is subsequently found to
22 have violated this section five or more times within one year of the
23 initial finding may be determined, at the discretion of the department
24 and taking into consideration the geographic availability of similar
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04072-01-3
S. 3414 2
1 services, to be ineligible to receive public funding for a period not to
2 exceed five years.
3 b. Any provider which has been deemed ineligible to receive public
4 funding pursuant to this section may apply to the department for an
5 order discontinuing such disqualification. The application shall set
6 forth the grounds, including that the provider has taken sufficient
7 actions to remove from responsibility officers and employees who engaged
8 in the actions that formed the basis of the violation, that the provider
9 has taken appropriate and sufficient actions to ensure that the actions
10 that formed the basis of the violation are unlikely to recur, and that
11 it will not be in the public interest to continue the disqualification.
12 § 3. Section 131-a of the social services law is amended by adding a
13 new subdivision 16 to read as follows:
14 16. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to
15 the contrary, a homeless individual or family applying for or receiving
16 temporary housing assistance shall not be required to pay room and board
17 or contribute any earned or unearned income, available benefits or
18 resources to eliminate their need for temporary housing assistance or as
19 a condition to receive temporary housing assistance from such provider.
20 For the purposes of this subdivision, any provider of temporary housing
21 assistance or short-term housing shall include, but not be limited to, a
22 family shelter, a cluster site apartment, a shelter for adults, a United
23 States Department of Housing and Urban Development assisted transitional
24 housing shelter, a public home, a hotel, an emergency apartment, a
25 domestic violence shelter, a runaway and homeless youth shelter, a room
26 and board shelter, a safe haven shelter, a veterans short-term housing
27 shelter, a criminal justice short-term housing shelter, or a safe house
28 for refugees, asylees, or trafficking victims operating in New York
29 state.
30 § 4. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
31 have become a law.
