NY State Senate Bill 2023-S2467

Senate Bill S2467

2023-2024 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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Current 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 03, 2024	referred to housing, construction and community development
Jan 20, 2023	referred to housing, construction and community development

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2023-S2467 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A4764
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
2021-2022: S1037, A3678

2023-S2467 (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.

2023-S2467 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S2467

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:

2021-2022:S.1037/A.3678

2019-2020:S.1926/A.4122

2017-2018:S.3179/A.5557

2015-2016:S.2831

2013-2014:S1492

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.

2023-S2467 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   2467
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 20, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sens.  KRUEGER, ADDABBO, BAILEY, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, 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.
                                                            LBD05504-01-3
 S. 2467                             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. 2467                             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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