Add Art 32 §§1290 & 1291, Priv Hous Fin L; add §99-rr, St Fin L
Establishes the rental improvement fund pilot program to provide capital grants to small landlords to renovate rental units in certain cities; creates the rental improvement fund.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8591
IN SENATE
February 20, 2024
___________
Introduced by Sen. RYAN -- 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 private housing finance law and the state finance
law, in relation to establishing the rental improvement fund pilot
program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The private housing finance law is amended by adding a new
2 article 32 to read as follows:
3 ARTICLE XXXII
4 RENTAL IMPROVEMENT FUND PILOT PROGRAM
5 Section 1290. Statement of legislative findings and purpose.
6 1291. Rental improvement fund pilot program.
7 § 1290. Statement of legislative findings and purpose. It is hereby
8 declared and found that there exists across upstate New York a shortage
9 of safe and affordable rental units. It is further found that stable
10 housing is tied to positive employment, education, and health outcomes,
11 and that the state therefore has an interest in promoting safe and
12 affordable housing opportunities. In order, further, to promote such
13 opportunities, it is hereby declared that additional provisions should
14 be made to provide public monies for the purpose of grants to small
15 landlords to make necessary improvements to rental units on the condi-
16 tion that renovated units will be leased at a reasonable rate for ten
17 years. The necessity in the public interest for the provisions of this
18 article is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.
19 § 1291. Rental improvement fund pilot program. 1. (a) Over a period of
20 five years beginning on the effective date of this article, the division
21 of housing and community renewal shall, subject to appropriation, make
22 capital grants of up to seventy-five thousand dollars per unit available
23 to small landlords for the purpose of making necessary improvements to
24 up to four thousand rental units located in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester,
25 and Syracuse. The allocation of the four thousand grants shall be
26 proportional to the populations of each of the four cities.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14513-03-4
S. 8591 2
1 (b) Receipt of such capital grants shall be conditioned upon an agree-
2 ment by such landlords to lease such renovated units at a reasonable
3 rate for the ten-year period following the receipt of such capital
4 grants. Over such ten-year period, each such rental unit shall be eligi-
5 ble to receive an additional ten thousand dollars for maintenance
6 purposes. Upon a finding by the commissioner of housing and community
7 renewal that a landlord who has received a grant to renovate a rental
8 unit pursuant to this section increased the rent at such unit at an
9 unreasonable rate, any grants received by such landlord shall be subject
10 to recoupment in full.
11 2. The commissioner of housing and community renewal shall promulgate
12 rules and regulations deemed necessary and appropriate to establish and
13 administer the rental improvement fund pilot program pursuant to this
14 article, including but not limited to the application process, eligibil-
15 ity requirements, disbursement of grants, determination of a reasonable
16 lease rate, and any other rules, regulations, or definitions necessary
17 to carry out the provisions of this article.
18 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-rr to
19 read as follows:
20 § 99-rr. Rental improvement fund. 1. There is hereby established in
21 the joint custody of the state comptroller and the commissioner of hous-
22 ing and community renewal a fund to be known as the "rental improvement
23 fund".
24 2. Such fund shall consist of all moneys collected therefor, or moneys
25 credited, appropriated or transferred thereto from any other fund or
26 source pursuant to law, or any other moneys made available for the
27 purposes of the fund.
28 3. Moneys of the fund, following appropriation by the legislature and
29 allocation by the director of the budget, shall be available only for
30 purposes of the rental improvement fund pilot program, as set forth in
31 article thirty-two of the private housing finance law.
32 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
33 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
34 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
35 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
36 on or before such effective date.
