CLEARE, COMRIE, FERNANDEZ, GONZALEZ, JACKSON, MAY, PARKER
MLTSPNSR
Amd §485.05, Pen L; amd §837, Exec L
Establishes the homeless protection act which designates certain offenses against homeless persons as hate crimes; includes the definition of homelessness.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6081--B
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 28, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the penal law and the executive law, in relation to
designating offenses against homeless persons as hate crimes
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 "homeless protection act".
3 § 2. Subdivisions 1, 2 and 4 of section 485.05 of the penal law, as
4 amended by chapter 8 of the laws of 2019, are amended to read as
5 follows:
6 1. A person commits a hate crime when he or she commits a specified
7 offense and either:
8 (a) intentionally selects the person against whom the offense is
9 committed or intended to be committed in whole or in substantial part
10 because of a belief or perception regarding the race, color, national
11 origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, reli-
12 gious practice, age, disability, homelessness, or sexual orientation of
13 a person, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct, or
14 (b) intentionally commits the act or acts constituting the offense in
15 whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding
16 the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or
17 expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability, homelessness,
18 or sexual orientation of a person, regardless of whether the belief or
19 perception is correct.
20 2. Proof of race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender
21 identity or expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability,
22 homelessness, or sexual orientation of the defendant, the victim or of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06488-11-3
S. 6081--B 2
1 both the defendant and the victim does not, by itself, constitute legal-
2 ly sufficient evidence satisfying the people's burden under paragraph
3 (a) or (b) of subdivision one of this section.
4 4. For purposes of this section:
5 (a) the term "age" means sixty years old or more;
6 (b) the term "disability" means a physical or mental impairment that
7 substantially limits a major life activity;
8 (c) the term "gender identity or expression" means a person's actual
9 or perceived gender-related identity, appearance, behavior, expression,
10 or other gender-related characteristic regardless of the sex assigned to
11 that person at birth, including, but not limited to, the status of being
12 transgender[.]; and
13 (d) the term "homelessness" means the set of circumstances in which an
14 individual or family lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime
15 residence, resides in a place not designed for or ordinarily used as a
16 regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, such as a car, public
17 sidewalk or street, hallway, bus or train station, lobby or similar
18 place, resides in a residential program for victims of domestic violence
19 or runaway and homeless youth, or resides in a supervised publicly or
20 privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living arrange-
21 ments, including hotels and motels paid for by federal, state, or local
22 government programs or by charitable organizations, congregate shelters,
23 safe havens or transitional housing.
24 § 3. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 4-c of section 837 of the executive
25 law, as amended by chapter 118 of the laws of 2022, is amended to read
26 as follows:
27 (a) In cooperation with the chief administrator of the courts as well
28 as any other public or private agency, including law enforcement agen-
29 cies, collect, maintain, analyze and make public statistical and all
30 other information and data with respect to the number of hate crimes
31 reported to or investigated by the division of state police, and all
32 other police or peace officers, the number of persons arrested for the
33 commission of such crimes, the offense for which the person was
34 arrested, the demographic data of the victim or victims of such crimes
35 including, but not limited to, race, color, national origin, ancestry,
36 gender, gender identity or expression, religion, religious practice,
37 age, disability, homelessness or sexual orientation of a person, the
38 demographic data of the person or persons arrested for the commission of
39 such crimes including, but not limited to, race, color, national origin,
40 ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, religious
41 practice, age, disability, homelessness or sexual orientation of a
42 person, the county within which the arrest was made and the accusatory
43 instrument filed, the disposition of the accusatory instrument filed,
44 including, but not limited to, as the case may be, dismissal, acquittal,
45 the offense to which the defendant pled guilty, the offense the defend-
46 ant was convicted of after trial, and the sentence imposed. Data
47 collected shall be used for research or statistical purposes only and
48 shall not contain information that may reveal the identity of any indi-
49 vidual. The division shall include the statistics and other information
50 required by this subdivision in an annual report submitted to the gover-
51 nor, the speaker of the assembly, the temporary president of the senate,
52 the chair of the assembly codes committee, the chair of the senate codes
53 committee, the attorney general and the chief administrative judge of
54 the office of court administration. Such annual reports shall be a
55 public record.
56 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
