BILL NUMBER:S1263

TITLE  OF  BILL:    An act to amend the social services law and the real
property law, in relation to  protecting  homeless  children  from  lead
paint poisoning

PURPOSE:
To assure that families receiving public assistance and/or other govern-
mental housing subsidies are not placed in hazardous housing.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section  one  amends social services law section 143-b and creates a new
subsection to bar state and local governmental agencies  from  arranging
to  place  families  in housing that will be subsidized with state funds
unless the dwelling unit has first been inspected by properly  qualified
personnel and determined to be free of lead-based paint hazards.

Section  two  amends  the real property law to bar discrimination in the
leasing of rental property against families receiving public  assistance
or governmental housing subsidies.

JUSTIFICATION:
Lead  poisoning  of  children  persists as one of the most prevalent and
preventable environmental diseases in New York. At least 10,000 children
were newly identified with levels of lead in their blood  at  10  micro-
grams per deciliter (ug/dl) in New York State in 2001.  Medical research
              

indicates  that  children  can  suffer  permanent, irreparable damage at
blood levels even lower than 10 ug/dl, and that there  is  no  level  of
lead  ingestion  which is without adverse impact.  Medical research also
indicates that fetal injuries from lead paint can occur  if  women  have
elevated blood levels during pregnancy.

Because  of  this,  intervention  measures that wait until children have
been  exposed  have  limited  benefits,  and  the  pursuit  of   primary
prevention,  which  means  eliminating  lead hazards before children are
exposed, has been recommended by the United States Centers  for  Disease
Control and Prevention and promoted by leading experts in the field as a
critical course of action to protect the health of young children.

Although  New  York state banned the sale of lead paint in 1970 (1.1970,
ch.  338),  seventy-four  percent  of  New  York's  housing  stock   was
constructed  prior  to 1970. At least ninety percent of lead-based paint
still remaining in occupied housing exists in units  built  before  1960
(when  New  York  City banned lead-based paint). New York State has both
the largest percentage and the largest absolute number of older  housing
units with lead paint in the nation.

The  deterioration  of  lead-based  paint in older residences results in
increased expenses each year for the state of New York in  the  form  of
special  education  and  other education expenses, medical care for lead
poisoned children, and expenditures  for  delinquent  youth  and  others

needing special supervision. The New York State Department of Health has
called for the elimination of childhood lead poisoning in New York State
by 2010.

It has recently been reported in various news media that New York City's
department  of  homeless  services has been placing homeless families in
dwelling units without properly inspecting such units  first  to  assure
that  they  were  free of lead-based paint hazards, and that as a result
such families have been placed in  housing  that  is  hazardous.  Social
Services  Law  section  143-b was originally enacted because of "certain
existing evils and abuses *** which have caused many  tenants,  who  are
welfare  recipients, to suffer untold hardships, deprivation of services
and deterioration of housing facilities because certain  landlords  have
been exploiting such tenants by failing to make necessary repairs and by
neglecting  to  afford  necessary services," (Declaration of purpose and
necessity, L.1962, ch. 997, § 1). In upholding the constitutionality  of
this  law,  the  New  York  State  Court  of Appeals explained that "...
welfare recipients have even less freedom than other tenants of  deteri-
orated  buildings  in selecting a place to live ... and the landlords of
welfare recipients, secure in  their  receipt  of  rents  directly  from
public  funds,  have  even  less  incentive than other landlords to make
repairs."
MATTER OF FARRELL V. DREW, 19 NY2d 486, 492 (1967).

This amendment to social services law section l43-b  would  address  the
concern that public funds are misused when they support the placement of
vulnerable  families  in housing with lead-based paint hazards. In addi-
tion, to address concerns that such amendment would make it more  diffi-
cult  to  find  landlords  willing  to  lease dwelling units to those on
public assistance or otherwise receiving governmental rental  subsidies,
the  real  property  law  would  be amended to bar discrimination in the
leasing of rental property such families.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2011-2012 Referred to Social Services, Children & Families; (S.1391)
2009-2010 Referred  to  Social  Services,  Children  &  Families;  Codes
(S.7419A)
2007-2008 Referred to Social Services, Children & Families (S.3043)

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Minimal.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.