Relates to enacting the rent emergency stabilization for tenants act on local determinations of a housing emergency; authorizes a city with a population of one million or more to declare an emergency as to any class of housing accommodations if the vacancy rate for the housing accommodations in such class within such municipality is not in excess of five percent and a declaration of emergency may be made as to all housing accommodations if the vacancy rate for the housing accommodations within such municipality is not in excess of five percent; authorizes other cities, towns and villages to declare a housing emergency after considering publicly available data and holding public hearings.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4877A
SPONSOR: Shrestha TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seven-
ty-four, in relation to enacting the rent emergency stabilization for
tenants act on local determinations of a housing emergency
PURPOSE:
This bill defines how a locality other than New York City may declare a
housing emergency in its jurisdiction for the purpose of adopting tenant
protections under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA).
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 establishes the short title for this act as the "rent emergen-
cy stabilization for tenants act."
Section 2 amends Section 3 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of
1974 to provide that villages, towns, and cities other than the City of
New York may choose to determine a housing emergency using one of two
methods.
-- The municipality may, after considering publicly available data and
holding public hearings, declare a housing emergency based on (but not
limited to) factors that measure overall housing supply, vacancy rate
for housing accommodations, the availability of affordable and habitable
housing accommodations, rent burdens for tenants, or other measures of
housing affordability such as the local or regional homelessness rate
and the need for regulating rents in that locality.
-- In the alternative, the municipality may declare a housing emergency
based on a study of vacancy rates in rental housing, pursuant to a proc-
ess that is unchanged by this bill.
In villages, towns, and cities other than New York City in which the
local government has already opted in to rent stabilization before the
effective date of this act, the local government may similarly use
either of these two methods to add buildings not built or substantially
rehabilitated within the past 15 years under the provisions of the new
paragraph 5-b, summarized below.
The manner in which the City of New York may declare a housing emergency
is also unchanged by this bill.
Section 2 also authorizes villages, towns, and cities other than the
City of New York to provide for rent stabilization in buildings with
fewer than six units if they choose.
Section 3 adds a new paragraph 5-b to subdivision a of section 5 of
section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974 to specify that in
villages, towns, and cities other than the City of New York that provide
for rent regulation, buildings that were built or substantially rehabil-
itated within the past 15 years, are exempt from regulation; under the
ETPA currently, buildings that were built or substantially rehabilitated
after January 1, 1974 are exempt, unless they are regulated pursuant to
another law or regulation.
Section 4 sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Rent stabilization in localities other than New York City is governed by
the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 (ETPA). Under the ETPA in
its original form, municipalities in Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester
counties may adopt rent stabilization if they declare a state of housing
emergency, defined as having a rental housing vacancy rate of less than
5%. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA)
amended the ETPA so that any municipality in the state may opt into rent
stabilization if it meets the emergency declaration criteria. According
to HCR's most recent data, 16 municipalities in Nassau, 2 in Rockland,
21 in Westchester, and 1 in Ulster (the City of Kingston) have adopted
rent stabilization.
The Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants Act (REST) recognizes that,
in addition to vacancy rate, publicly available data on a locality's
eviction rate, homeless shelter population, renters' housing cost
burdens, and other relevant indicators can also demonstrate a locality's
lack of housing availability, affordability, and stability. For example,
eviction filing data in each county is available and updated monthly on
the NYS Office of Court Administration's Statewide Landlord Tenant
Eviction Dashboard, and localities may have access to data on their
local homeless shelters. These metrics can paint a fuller picture of a
locality's housing needs and can fulfill the ETPA's requirement that
localities may institute rent regulation only after declaring a housing
emergency. At the same time, there may be localities that wish to
declare an emergency pursuant to the existing process, based on the
vacancy rate; this bill leaves that process unchanged.
REST also seeks to modernize the ETPA so that localities adopting rent
stabilization may do so in a way that makes sense for the here and now.
The ETPA in its current form extends rent stabilization to buildings
with six or more units, an easy threshold to reach in high-density New
York City where multifamily residential buildings are more common.
Recognizing that the mix of housing varies widely across the state, this
legislation would allow localities to set a lower building size thresh-
old for rent stabilization coverage if they choose. Finally, when the
ETPA was first passed in June 1974, the law brought into rent stabiliza-
tion all the eligible buildings that had been constructed at that point
- built on or before January 1, 1974. This eligibility date has not
changed in over 50 years. More recently, when the legislature enacted
the Good Cause Eviction bill, it exempted all buildings built within the
last 15 years. This legislation would reflect the ETPA's original intent
of enabling localities, outside of New York City, to provide rent
stabilization protections to a substantial portion of their housing, not
just to buildings that are half a century old, by including buildings
constructed or substantially rehabilitated more tha n 15 years ago.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE
THIS ACT SHALL TAKE EFFECT IMMEDIATELY.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4877--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 7, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SHRESTHA, SHIMSKY, KELLES, ROMERO, REYES,
GALLAGHER, LEVENBERG, BURROUGHS -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Housing -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seven-
ty-four, in relation to enacting the rent emergency stabilization for
tenants act on local determinations of a housing emergency
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "rent emergency stabilization for tenants act".
3 § 2. Section 3 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974,
4 constituting the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-
5 four, subdivision a as amended by chapter 69 of the laws of 1980, subdi-
6 visions d, f and g as added by chapter 698 of the laws of 2023 and
7 subdivision e as amended by chapter 100 of the laws of 2024, is amended
8 to read as follows:
9 § 3. Local determination of emergency; end of emergency. a. The exist-
10 ence of public emergency requiring the regulation of residential rents
11 for all or any class or classes of housing accommodations, including any
12 plot or parcel of land which had been rented prior to May first, nine-
13 teen hundred fifty, for the purpose of permitting the tenant thereof to
14 construct or place [his] such tenant's own dwelling thereon and on which
15 plot or parcel of land there exists a dwelling owned and occupied by a
16 tenant of such plot or parcel, heretofore destabilized; heretofore or
17 hereafter decontrolled, exempt, not subject to control, or exempted from
18 regulation and control under the provisions of the emergency housing
19 rent control law, the local emergency housing rent control act or the
20 New York city rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine; or
21 subject to stabilization or control under such rent stabilization law,
22 shall be a matter for local determination within each city, town or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05109-05-5
A. 4877--A 2
1 village. Any such determination shall be made by the local legislative
2 body of such city, town or village on the basis of the supply of housing
3 accommodations within such city, town or village, the condition of such
4 accommodations and the need for regulating and controlling residential
5 rents within such city, town or village.
6 [A] b. For a city having a population of one million or more resi-
7 dents, a declaration of emergency may be made as to any class of housing
8 accommodations if the vacancy rate for the housing accommodations in
9 such class within such municipality is not in excess of five percent and
10 a declaration of emergency may be made as to all housing accommodations
11 if the vacancy rate for the housing accommodations within such munici-
12 pality is not in excess of five percent.
13 [b.] c. For a city having a population of less than one million resi-
14 dents or a town or village, the local legislative body may declare a
15 housing emergency through the process described in paragraph one or two
16 of this subdivision. For such a jurisdiction where a local legislative
17 body has declared a housing emergency pursuant to this act prior to the
18 effective date of this subdivision, the local legislative body may add
19 classes of accommodation as described in paragraph 5-b of subdivision a
20 of section five of this act, through the process described in paragraph
21 1 or 2 of this subdivision.
22 (1) The local legislative body may declare a housing emergency after
23 considering publicly available data and holding public hearings. Before
24 declaring such emergency, the local legislative body shall consider
25 publicly available data measuring or estimating factors such as: over-
26 all housing supply, vacancy rate for housing accommodations, the avail-
27 ability of affordable and habitable housing accommodations, rent burdens
28 for tenants or other measures of housing affordability, the local or
29 regional homelessness rate, and the need for regulating rents within
30 such city, town or village.
31 (2) The local legislative body may declare an emergency as to any
32 class of housing accommodations if the vacancy rate for such housing
33 accommodations in such class within such municipality is not in excess
34 of five percent and a declaration of emergency may be made as to all
35 housing accommodations if the vacancy rate for the housing accommo-
36 dations within such municipality is not in excess of five percent.
37 (i) A municipality or a designee, as part of a study to determine its
38 vacancy rate, owners, or their agent, of housing accommodations in the
39 class of housing accommodations determined, shall provide the most
40 recent records of rent rolls and, if available, records for the preced-
41 ing thirty-six months. Such records shall include the tenant's relevant
42 information relating to finding the vacancy rate of such municipality
43 including but not limited to the name, address, and amount paid or
44 charged on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis for each occupied housing
45 accommodation and which housing accommodations are vacant at the time of
46 the survey and available for rent. Such records shall also include any
47 housing accommodations that are vacant and not available for rent and
48 provide the reason why such unit is not available for rent.
49 (ii) A municipality may impose a civil penalty or fee of up to five
50 hundred dollars on an owner or their agent if such owner or their agent
51 refuses to participate in such vacancy survey and cooperate with such
52 municipality or a designee in such vacancy survey, or submits knowingly
53 and intentionally false vacancy information.
54 (iii) A nonrespondent owner shall be deemed to have zero vacancies.
A. 4877--A 3
1 (iv) Identifying data or information shall be kept confidential and
2 shall not be shared, traded, given, or sold to any other entity for any
3 purpose outside of such vacancy study.
4 d. A city of under one million residents or a town or village may add
5 classes of accommodation to regulation under this act in buildings
6 containing fewer than six units.
7 e. The local governing body of a city, town or village having declared
8 an emergency pursuant to subdivision a, b, or c of this section may at
9 any time, on the basis of the supply of housing accommodations within
10 such city, town or village, the condition of such accommodations and the
11 need for continued regulation and control of residential rents within
12 such municipality, declare that the emergency is either wholly or
13 partially abated or that the regulation of rents pursuant to this act
14 does not serve to abate such emergency and thereby remove one or more
15 classes of accommodations from regulation under this act. [The emergency
16 must be declared at an end once the vacancy rate described in subdivi-
17 sion a of this section exceeds five percent.
18 c.] f. No resolution declaring the existence or end of an emergency,
19 as authorized by [subdivisions] subdivision a [and], b or c of this
20 section, may be adopted except after public hearing held on not less
21 than ten days public notice, as the local legislative body may reason-
22 ably provide.
23 [d. When requested by a municipality or a designee, as a part of a
24 study to determine its vacancy rate, owners, or their agent, of housing
25 accommodations in the class of housing accommodations determined, shall
26 provide the most recent records of rent rolls and, if available, records
27 for the preceding thirty-six months. Such records shall include the
28 tenant's relevant information relating to finding the vacancy rate of
29 such municipality including but not limited to the name, address, and
30 amount paid or charged on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis for each
31 occupied housing accommodation and which housing accommodations are
32 vacant at the time of the survey and available for rent. Such records
33 shall also include any housing accommodations that are vacant and not
34 available for rent and provide the reason why such unit is not available
35 for rent.
36 e. A municipality may impose a civil penalty or fee of up to five
37 hundred dollars on an owner or their agent if the owner or their agent
38 refuses to participate in such vacancy survey and cooperate with the
39 municipality or a designee in such vacancy survey, or submits knowingly
40 and intentionally false vacancy information.
41 f. A nonrespondent owner shall be deemed to have zero vacancies.
42 g. Identifying data or information shall be kept confidential and
43 shall not be shared, traded, given, or sold to any other entity for any
44 purpose outside of such vacancy study.]
45 § 3. Subdivision a of section 5 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the
46 laws of 1974, constituting the emergency tenant protection act of nine-
47 teen seventy-four, is amended by adding a new paragraph 5-b to read as
48 follows:
49 (5-b) housing accommodations located in a city having a population of
50 less than one million residents or a town or village in buildings
51 completed or buildings substantially rehabilitated as family units with-
52 in the past fifteen years.
53 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
