Senator Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick & Senate Republican Conference Unveil Legislative Package to Prioritize Housing

ALBANY, NY – Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, along with Senate Republican Leader Robert Ortt, Senator Pam Helming, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Housing, Construction, and Community Development, and members of the Senate Republican Conference, today unveiled a comprehensive package of legislation designed to incentivize home ownership, improve access to affordable housing options in communities and help protect homeowners against “squatters.”

The package includes tax credits and incentives, removes regulatory burdens, and incentivizes new construction, as well as continued investment and improvements in existing housing stock. In addition, it will directly address the recent increase in outrageous cases of “squatters” who inhabit a home without permission from the law-abiding, taxpaying property owners who actually own the home.

“There have been several high profile, disturbing reports regarding squatters recently. The mere notion of so-called ‘squatters rights’ is nonsensical and is having devastating effects on property owners who are forced to continue paying real estate taxes, possibly a mortgage and other expenses while a squatter wrongly occupies their property. My legislation would make it clear that squatters and those who occupy property without permission from the owner are not treated as tenants and have no right to remain on the property. Until our policies stop favoring criminal behavior, cases such as these will only continue to get worse,” said Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick.

Included in the package unveiled today are proposals that would:

• Establish the crime of squatting as criminal trespass in the third degree (S.5979, Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick);
• Create a first-time homebuyer tax credit to give new homeowners an income tax credit based on their local property taxes, making the American dream more affordable for New Yorkers (S.8826, Helming);
• Create a home renovation tax exemption to provide five years of property tax relief to homeowners who invest in their property. This will incentivize the revitalization of our existing housing stock, bringing abandoned and dilapidated homes back to life and expanding the housing stock of the future (S.8838, Helming);
• Establish a housing infrastructure tax credit to provide a credit of up to ten percent of costs for infrastructure projects related to the construction of new homes or multiple dwellings (S.8578, Helming);
• Establish a tax credit of up to $2000 to incentivize the installation of manufactured homes and the expansion of manufactured home communities to provide more affordable housing opportunities (S.8458, Helming);
• Provide means-testing for rent-regulated housing to ensure that affordable housing units are occupied by those who need them (S.8887, Martins);
• Create a Local Housing Task Force to bring together local government officials, state agencies, and stakeholders to develop best practices to incentivize housing development and address state regulation that prevents development (S.8896, Martins);
• Extend the successful 421-a tax incentive for developers (S.7560, Palumbo);
• Expedite the method where a property owner may evict a squatter from residential property (S.8867, Mattera).