S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                    914
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             January 11, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL, BICHOTTE HERMELYN, JOYNER, WALKER
   -- read once and referred to the Committee on Housing
 
 AN ACT to amend the emergency tenant protection act of  nineteen  seven-
   ty-four,  in  relation  to  limited-profit housing companies and other
   buildings or structures which received project-based rental assistance

   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.    Legislative  findings and declaration of emergency. The
 legislature hereby finds and declares that the serious public  emergency
 which  led  to the enactment of the existing laws regulating residential
 rents and evictions continues to exist;  that  such  laws  would  better
 serve  the public interest if certain changes were made thereto, includ-
 ing extending to certain cities, towns and  villages  the  authority  to
 provide for the regulation of rents and evictions with regard to housing
 accommodations  that  cease  or  have ceased to be regulated pursuant to
 article 2 of the private housing finance law, known as the Mitchell-Lama
 law, or pursuant to project-based section eight contracts  entered  into
 with the federal government.
   The  legislature  further  recognizes  that  severe  disruption of the
 rental housing market has occurred and threatens to be exacerbated as  a
 result  of  the  abrupt termination of rent and eviction regulation when
 buildings completed or substantially renovated as  family  units  on  or
 after  January  first,  nineteen hundred seventy-four exit the Mitchell-
 Lama program or when buildings cease  to  be  subject  to  project-based
 section  eight  contracts.  The  situation had permitted speculative and
 profiteering practices and has brought about the loss of vital and irre-
 placeable affordable housing for working persons and families.
   The legislature therefore declares that in order to prevent uncertain-
 ty, potential hardship and dislocation  of  tenants  living  in  housing
 accommodations  subject  to  government  regulations  as  to rentals and
 continued occupancy as well as those not subject  to  such  regulations,
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD01293-01-3
              

 A. 914                              2
 
 the  provisions  of this act are necessary to protect the public health,
 safety and general welfare. The necessity in the public interest for the
 provisions hereinafter enacted is hereby declared as a matter of  legis-
 lative determination.
   § 2. Section 5 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974 consti-
 tuting  the  emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four is
 amended by adding a new subdivision c to read as follows:
   C. NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THIS SECTION, NOTHING  SHALL
 PREVENT  THE  DECLARATION  OF  AN EMERGENCY PURSUANT TO SECTION THREE OF
 THIS ACT FOR RENTAL  HOUSING  ACCOMMODATIONS  LOCATED  IN  BUILDINGS  OR
 STRUCTURES  WHICH  WERE OWNED BY A COMPANY ESTABLISHED UNDER ARTICLE TWO
 OF THE PRIVATE HOUSING FINANCE LAW, OTHER THAN A MUTUAL  COMPANY,  WHICH
 ARE NO LONGER OWNED BY SUCH COMPANY BY REASON OF A VOLUNTARY DISSOLUTION
 PURSUANT TO SECTION THIRTY-FIVE OF SUCH LAW OR FOR RENTAL HOUSING ACCOM-
 MODATIONS LOCATED IN BUILDINGS OR STRUCTURES DEFINED AS COVERED PROJECTS
 PURSUANT TO SECTION 8 OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSING ACT OF NINETEEN THIR-
 TY-SEVEN,  AS  AMENDED,  OR  ANY  SUCCESSOR STATUTE, AND ANY REGULATIONS
 PROMULGATED THEREUNDER IN WHICH RENTAL HOUSING  ACCOMMODATIONS  RECEIVED
 PROJECT-BASED  RENTAL  ASSISTANCE  FROM  THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
 HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT PURSUANT TO CONTRACTS WITH THE  OWNERS  OF
 SUCH  BUILDINGS  OR  STRUCTURES  WHICH EXPIRED OR WERE TERMINATED.   THE
 INITIAL LEGAL REGULATED  RENT  FOR  HOUSING  ACCOMMODATIONS  LOCATED  IN
 BUILDINGS  OR  STRUCTURES  THAT  WERE OWNED BY HOUSING COMPANIES OR THAT
 WERE COVERED PROJECTS PREVIOUSLY REGULATED  UNDER  THE  PRIVATE  HOUSING
 FINANCE  LAW OR UNDER FEDERAL LAW, SHALL BE THE RENT CHARGED TO AND PAID
 BY THE TENANT IN OCCUPANCY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY DAYS PRIOR TO  THE  EFFEC-
 TIVE  DATE  OF  A CHAPTER OF THE LAWS OF TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-THREE WHICH
 ADDED THIS SUBDIVISION OR, FOR ACCOMMODATIONS VACANT ON SUCH  DATE,  THE
 MOST  RECENT  RENT  CHARGED  TO AND PAID BY A TENANT PRIOR TO SUCH DATE,
 INCLUDING ANY INCOME-RELATED SURCHARGES, AS ADJUSTED BY  ALL  APPLICABLE
 GUIDELINES   INCREASES  AND  OTHER  INCREASES  AUTHORIZED  BY  LAW.  THE
 PROVISIONS OF SUBDIVISION A OF SECTION NINE OF THIS ACT OR  OF  SUBDIVI-
 SION  A  OF SECTION 26-513 OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE CODE OF THE CITY OF NEW
 YORK SHALL NOT APPLY TO ANY HOUSING ACCOMMODATION WHICH  BECAME  SUBJECT
 TO THIS ACT PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SUBDIVISION.
   §  3.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, in a city
 having a population of one million or  more,  the  New  York  city  rent
 stabilization law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine may be amended by local
 law  or  ordinance  to provide for the regulation of rents and evictions
 and the enforcement of such rent stabilization law with regard to  hous-
 ing accommodations made subject to such law by a declaration of emergen-
 cy made pursuant to this act.
   § 4. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to housing
 accommodations  located  in  buildings  or  structures  owned by housing
 companies that dissolved on, before or after such date  and  to  housing
 accommodations in buildings or structures that were covered projects and
 had  contracts for rental assistance that expired or were terminated on,
 before or after such date.