NY State Senate Bill 2009-S749

Senate Bill S749

2009-2010 Legislative Session

Removes provisions prohibiting N.Y. city from strengthening rent regulation laws to provide more comprehensive coverage than state laws

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Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Cities Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 06, 2010	referred to cities
Jan 15, 2009	referred to cities

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2009-S749 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A1688
Current Committee:: Senate Cities
Law Section:: Local Emergency Housing Rent Control Act
Laws Affected:: Amd §1, Chap 21 of 1962
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2011-2012: S443, A2993
2013-2014: S1492, A8393
2015-2016: S2831, A1759
2017-2018: S3179, A5557
2019-2020: S1926, A4122
2021-2022: S1037, A3678
2023-2024: S2467, A4764

2009-S749 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Removes provisions that prohibit cities of one million or more from strengthening rent regulation laws to provide more comprehensive coverage than state laws.

2009-S749 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S749

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the local emergency housing rent control act, in
relation to rent regulation laws


 PURPOSE :
To restore home rule to New York City regarding a critical local issue
by returning its power to address legislatively its worsening housing
affordability and homeless crisis; to preserve remaining affordable
housing by enacting enhanced rent and eviction protections.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :
This act includes provisions repealing the 1971 'Urstadt Law,' which
prohibits cities with a population of one million or more from
strengthening rent and eviction protections, and the 2003 amendment to
it that further curtailed the City's home rule powers.

 JUSTIFICATION :
Since 1971, when home rule over rent and eviction protections was
taken away, New York City's housing situation has gone from chronic
shortage to acute crisis. According to the 2005 NYC Housing and
Vacancy Survey, the rental vacancy rate is 3.09%; a vacancy rate of
less than 5% creates abnormal market conditions. Rent hardship
afflicts poor and middle-class households alike, with half of all New

Yorkers paying at or over the federal hardship level of 30% of income
in rent, and a forth of all households paying more than half their
income in rent.  Firefighters, nurses, teachers, police officers,
nurses, construction workers, seniors, artists and thousands of other
New Yorkers can no longer afford to live in the communities they
serve. More and more low income families have become homeless - there
are more homeless people in NYC than at any time since the Great
Depression.

As families are forced out of their homes, the rents are frequently
increased to exorbitant levels, contributing to an even tighter
housing market. The NYC Rent Guidelines Board found that at least
12,692 rent stabilized units were deregulated last year alone, more
than 8,200 of these due to vacancy decontrol. Unless the regulations
governing rent and eviction protections are strengthened, hundreds of
thousands of additional affordable units are likely to be lost during
the next decade.

While communities across the state face a range of housing
difficulties, the housing market in NYC is unlike any other in the
state. NYC's local government is in the best position to understand
and address the conditions created by this market. Currently, however,
because its hands are tied by the Urstadt Law, the local government is
powerless to deal with the housing crisis within its borders.

This act restores NYC's home rule in this critical area of local
concern, so that it can adopt rational policies to protect more than
2.4 million residents in one million rent controlled and stabilized
apartments. This act also removes the impediment to the local
government's ability to protect tens of thousands of families facing
the devastating loss of protections under existing Mitchell-Lama and
Section B programs.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.

 LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.

2009-S749 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                   749

                       2009-2010 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                            January 15, 2009
                               ___________

Introduced   by  Sens.  KRUEGER,  DUANE,  MONSERRATE,  ONORATO,  PARKER,
  PERKINS, SAVINO, SCHNEIDERMAN, SERRANO, STAVISKY  --  read  twice  and
  ordered  printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on
  Cities

AN ACT to amend  the  local  emergency  housing  rent  control  act,  in
  relation to rent regulation laws

  THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21  of  the  laws  of
1962,  constituting  the  local  emergency  housing rent control act, as
amended by chapter 82 of the  laws  of  2003,  is  amended  to  read  as
follows:
  5.  Authority  for local rent control legislation.  Each city having a
population of one million or more, acting through its local  legislative
body,  may  adopt  and  amend local laws or ordinances in respect of the
establishment or designation of a city  housing  rent  agency.  When  it
deems such action to be desirable or necessitated by local conditions in
order  to  carry  out the purposes of this section, such city, except as
hereinafter provided, acting through its local legislative body and  not
otherwise,  may  adopt  and amend local laws or ordinances in respect of
the regulation and control  of  residential  rents,  including  but  not
limited  to  provision  for  the establishment and adjustment of maximum
rents, the classification of housing accommodations, the  regulation  of
evictions,  and  the  enforcement  of such local laws or ordinances. The
validity of any such local laws or ordinances, and the  rules  or  regu-
lations  promulgated  in  accordance therewith, shall not be affected by
and need not be consistent with the state emergency housing rent control
law or with rules and regulations of the state division of  housing  and
community renewal.
  Notwithstanding  any  local  law  or ordinance, housing accommodations
which became vacant on or after July first, nineteen hundred seventy-one

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD01149-01-9

S. 749                              2

or which hereafter become vacant shall be subject to the  provisions  of
the  emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, provided,
however, that this provision shall not apply or  become  effective  with
respect  to housing accommodations which, by local law or ordinance, are
made directly subject to regulation and control by a city  housing  rent
agency  and  such  agency  determines or finds that the housing accommo-
dations became vacant because the landlord or any person acting  on  his
behalf, with intent to cause the tenant to vacate, engaged in any course
of conduct (including but not limited to, interruption or discontinuance
of  essential  services)  which  interfered  with  or  disturbed  or was
intended to interfere with or disturb  the  comfort,  repose,  peace  or
quiet  of  the  tenant  in  his use or occupancy of the housing accommo-
dations. The removal of any housing accommodation  from  regulation  and
control  of rents pursuant to the vacancy exemption provided for in this
paragraph shall not constitute or operate as a ground for the subjection
to more stringent regulation and control of any housing accommodation in
such property or in any other  property  owned  by  the  same  landlord,
notwithstanding any prior agreement to the contrary by the landlord. The
vacancy  exemption  provided  for in this paragraph shall not arise with
respect to any rented plot or parcel of land otherwise  subject  to  the
provisions  of this act, by reason of a transfer of title and possession
occurring on or after July first,  nineteen  hundred  seventy-one  of  a
dwelling  located  on  such plot or parcel and owned by the tenant where
such transfer of title and  possession  is  made  to  a  member  of  the
tenant's immediate family provided that the member of the tenant's imme-
diate family occupies the dwelling with the tenant prior to the transfer
of title and possession for a continuous period of two years.
  The term "immediate family" shall include a husband, wife, son, daugh-
ter,  stepson, stepdaughter, father, mother, father-in-law or mother-in-
law.
  [Notwithstanding the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall  here-
after  provide  for  the regulation and control of residential rents and
eviction in respect of any housing accommodations which are (1) present-
ly exempt from such regulation and control or (2) hereafter decontrolled
either by operation of law or by a city housing rent agency, by order or
otherwise. No housing accommodations presently subject to regulation and
control pursuant to local laws or ordinances adopted  or  amended  under
authority  of  this subdivision shall hereafter be by local law or ordi-
nance or by rule or regulation which has not been  theretofore  approved
by  the state commissioner of housing and community renewal subjected to
more stringent or restrictive provisions of regulation and control  than
those presently in effect.
  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, on and after the effective
date  of  this  paragraph,  a city having a population of one million or
more shall not, either through its local legislative body or  otherwise,
adopt  or  amend local laws or ordinances with respect to the regulation
and control of residential rents and eviction, including but not limited
to provision for the establishment and adjustment of rents, the  classi-
fication of housing accommodations, the regulation of evictions, and the
enforcement of such local laws or ordinances, or otherwise adopt laws or
ordinances  pursuant to the provisions of this act, the emergency tenant
protection act of nineteen seventy-four, the  New  York  city  rent  and
rehabilitation  law  or the New York city rent stabilization law, except
to the extent that such city for the purpose of reviewing the  continued
need  for the existing regulation and control of residential rents or to
remove a classification of housing accommodation  from  such  regulation

S. 749                              3

and control adopts or amends local laws or ordinances pursuant to subdi-
vision  three of section one of this act, section three of the emergency
tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, section  26-415  of  the
New  York  city  rent  and  rehabilitation  law, and sections 26-502 and
26-520 of the New York city rent stabilization law of  nineteen  hundred
sixty-nine.]
  Notwithstanding  any  provision of this act to the contrary, any local
law adopted pursuant to this act shall provide that notwithstanding  any
provision  of such local law in the case where all tenants occupying the
housing accommodation on the  effective  date  of  this  paragraph  have
vacated  the  housing accommodation and a family member of such vacating
tenant or tenants is entitled to and continues  to  occupy  the  housing
accommodation  subject  to the protections of such act, if such accommo-
dation continues to be subject to such  act  after  such  family  member
vacates,  on the occurrence of such vacancy the maximum collectable rent
shall be increased by a sum equal to the allowance then  in  effect  for
vacancy leases for housing accommodations covered by the rent stabiliza-
tion law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine, including the amount allowed by
paragraph  (5-a)  of  subdivision  c of section 26-511 of such law. This
increase shall be in addition to any other  increases  provided  for  in
this  act  and  shall be applicable in like manner to each second subse-
quent succession.
  Notwithstanding the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall subject
to such regulation and control any housing accommodation  which  is  not
occupied by the tenant in possession as his primary residence; provided,
however,  that  such housing accommodation not occupied by the tenant in
possession as his primary residence shall  continue  to  be  subject  to
regulation  and  control  as provided for herein unless the city housing
rent agency issues an order decontrolling such accommodation, which  the
agency  shall  do upon application by the landlord whenever it is estab-
lished by any facts and circumstances which,  in  the  judgment  of  the
agency,  may  have  a  bearing  upon the question of residence, that the
tenant maintains his primary residence at some place other than at  such
housing accommodation.
  S  2.  This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that
the amendments to subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21 of  the  laws
of  1962  made by section one of this act shall remain in full force and
effect only so long as the public emergency requiring the regulation and
control of residential rents and evictions  continues,  as  provided  in
subdivision  3  of section 1 of the local emergency housing rent control
act; provided further, however, that the amendment to the second  undes-
ignated  paragraph  of  subdivision  5 of section 1 of chapter 21 of the
laws of 1962 made by section one of this act shall not affect the  expi-
ration of such paragraph and shall be deemed to expire therewith.

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