BILL NUMBER: S817         REVISED 12/02/2021

SPONSOR: BIAGGI
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public housing law, in relation to preferences and
priorities for prospective public housing and section 8 tenants in the
city of New York

 
PURPOSE OF BILL:

Requires the New York City Housing Authority, in reviewing applicants,
to grant homeless domestic violence victims the same preference as
granted the homeless

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Amends paragraph (e) of subdivision 3 of section 402-b of the
public housing law, as added by chapter 3 of the laws of 2010, to
provide that residency in a city owned, operated or contracted domestic
violence shelter shall be treated the same a residency in a city owned,
operated or contracted homeless shelter, for purposes of calculating an
              

applicant's priority status for public housing

Section 2. Effective immediately

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The New York City Housing Authority currently has a significant backlog
of qualified applicants for its available units, meaning that individ-
uals and families often wait years to obtain public housing.  Adding to
this delay is the fact that preference categories have been created to
move specific categories of applicants with particularly pressing hous-
ing needs to the top of the list.

NYCHA has recently reinstated a top N-0 priority for applicants who have
spent more than a year in a New York City homeless shelter.  Domestic
violence survivors are allowed to count time spent in a city-owned
domestic violence shelter toward the one-year requirement, but not time
spent in shelters operated by outside nonprofits.  Because the city
owned domestic violence shelter has a six-month maximum length of stay,
a resident or family would have to transfer to a city homeless shelter
for six months instead of a privately-operated domestic violence shelter
in order to qualify for

No status and maximize their chance of obtaining public housing.  No
family should be forced to choose between the security and vital
services offered in a domestic violence shelter and the chance to obtain
permanent housing.,

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2019-2020: S4068A/A10287 - Died in Housing, Construction and Community
Development/Died in Housing
2017-2018: S3767 - Died in Rules
2015.-2016: S4558/A7268 - Passed the Senate/Died in Housing

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.