BILL NUMBER: S9936

SPONSOR: CLEARE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public housing law, in relation to requiring the New
York city housing authority to contract with non-profit private entities
when qualifying for certain programs

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To prevent private corporations from profiteering off of public housing.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends section 402 of the public housing law by adding a new
subdivision 11 stipulating that the New York city housing auth ority
(NYCHA) shall only contract with a nonprofit entity when converting
property to Section 8 units as part of the rental assistanc e demon-
stration program or any other program

Section 2 provides the effective date

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Long term disinvestment at the federal, state, and city level has
created an opening for the private sector to profit off of New York's
public housing in the form of The Department of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment's Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program. Usi ng a combi-
nation of RAD and other programs to convert property to Section 8 units,
New York City plans to hand over roughly a third of its public housing
stock to private landlords.

Private landlords are accountable to tenants and their needs insofar as
it is profitable. There is no shortage of evidence that shows how often
landlords jeopardize the comfort, health, and safety of tenants to boost
their own profits and no reason to believe that private management of
NYCHA would not be susceptible to a similar dynamic.

To avoid further worsening conditions in NYCHA, this bill would prevent
a profit-driven private takeover of public housing by prohibiting NYCHA
from contracting with for-profit entities when converting property to
Section 8 units. Instead, NYCHA wouldò only be able to contract with
non-profit entities if it wishes to convert property to Section 8 units
through RAD or any other programs.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-2022: A3176 (Epstein) / No Same as - Assembly Housing

2020:  A10003/No same as - referred to housing

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

Unknown.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Ninety days after becoming law.