NY State Senate Bill 2021-S1037

Senate Bill S1037

2021-2022 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 Housing, Construction And Community Development 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 05, 2022	referred to housing, construction and community development
Jan 06, 2021	referred to housing, construction and community development

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2021-S1037 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A3678
Current Committee:: Senate Housing, Construction And Community Development
Law Section:: Local Emergency Housing Rent Control Act
Laws Affected:: Amd §1, Chap 21 of 1962
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2009-2010: S749, A1688
2011-2012: S443, A2993
2013-2014: S1492, A8393
2015-2016: S2831, A1759
2017-2018: S3179, A5557
2019-2020: S1926, A4122
2023-2024: S2467, A4764

2021-S1037 (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.

2021-S1037 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S1037

SPONSOR: KRUEGER
 
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 repeals 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 New
York City's home rule powers.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Since 1971, when home rule over rent and eviction protections was
removed, New York City's housing situation has gone from chronic short-
age to acute crisis. According to the 2017 NYC Housing and Vacancy
Survey, the rental vacancy rate is 3.63%; a vacancy rate of less than 5%
creates abnormal market conditions. Rent hardship afflicts poor and
middle-class households alike, with more than half of all tenants paying
at or over the federal hardship level of 30% of income in rent, and
almost one in three households paying more than 50% their income in
rent. Firefighters, nurses, teachers, police officers, construction
workers, seniors, artists and 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. According to a 2018 study by the New York City Rent Guidelines
Board, more than 290,000 rent stabilized units were lost since 1993,
most of them due to high rent and vacancy deregulation.  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 condi-
tions 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
million residents in almost one million rent controlled and stabilized
apartments. This act also removes the impediment to the local govern-
ment's ability to protect tens of thousands of families facing the
devastating loss of protections under existing Mitchell-Lama and Section
8 programs.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017-2018:S.3179/A.5557
2015-2016:S.2831
2013-2014:S 1492
2011-2012:S.443-A
2009-2010:S.749/A.1688
2007-2008:S.1673/A.4069
2005-2006:S.2735/A.4523
2003-2004:S.3123/A.2071
2001-2002:S.4369/A.1307
1997-1998:S.6532-A

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately, with provisions.

2021-S1037 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   1037
 
                        2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              January 6, 2021
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sens.  KRUEGER,  ADDABBO, BAILEY, HOYLMAN, JACKSON, LIU,
   PARKER, SERRANO -- 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  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 and the closing paragraph as
 amended by chapter 422 of the laws  of  2010,  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.
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD01472-01-1

 S. 1037                             2
 
   Notwithstanding  any  local  law  or ordinance, housing accommodations
 which became vacant on or after July first, nineteen hundred seventy-one
 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

 S. 1037                             3

 need for the existing regulation and control of residential rents or  to
 remove  a  classification  of housing accommodation from such regulation
 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 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 or  her  primary  residence;
 provided,  however,  that such housing accommodation not occupied by the
 tenant in possession as his or her 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  accommo-
 dation, which the agency shall do upon application by the landlord when-
 ever  it  is  established  by  any facts and circumstances which, in the
 judgment of the agency, may have a bearing upon the  question  of  resi-
 dence,  that  the  tenant maintains his or her primary residence at some
 place other than at such housing  accommodation.  For  the  purposes  of
 determining  primary  residency,  a  tenant  who is a victim of domestic
 violence, as defined in section four hundred fifty-nine-a of the  social
 services  law,  who  has left the unit because of such violence, and who
 asserts an intent to return to the housing accommodation shall be deemed
 to be occupying the unit as his or her primary residence.
   § 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.

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