Senate Bill S2831

2015-2016 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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Archive: Last 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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Date of Action	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 06, 2016	referred to housing, construction and community development
Jan 29, 2015	referred to housing, construction and community development

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2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A1759
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
2017-2018: S3179, A5557
2019-2020: S1926, A4122
2021-2022: S1037, A3678
2023-2024: S2467, A4764
2025-2026: S2306, A1498

2015-S2831 (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.

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                BILL NUMBER:S2831

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 includes provisions repealing 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 the City's home rule powers.

JUSTIFICATION:

Since 1971, when home rule over rent and eviction protections was
taken away, New York City's housing situation has gone from chronic
shortage to acute crisis. According to the 2011 NYC Housing and

Vacancy Survey, the rental vacancy rate is 3.12%; a vacancy rate of
less than 5% creates abnormal market conditions. Rent hardship
afflicts poor and middle-class households alike, with half of all New
Yorkers paying at ox over the federal hardship level of 30% of income
in rent, and almost one in three households paying more than half
their income in rent Firefighters, nurses, teachers, police officers,
nurses, construction workers, seniors, artists and thousands of 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. More than one third of the city's subsidized
apartments were lost between 1990 and 2006, and the NYC Rent
Guidelines Board found that at least 14,175 rent stabilized units were
deregulated in 2011 alone 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 conditions 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
government's ability to protect tens of thousands of families facing
the devastating loss of protections under existing Mitchell-Lama and
Section B programs.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

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.

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  2831

                       2015-2016 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                            January 29, 2015
                               ___________

Introduced  by  Sens. KRUEGER, ADDABBO, AVELLA, HAMILTON, HASSELL-THOMP-
  SON, HOYLMAN, MONTGOMERY, PARKER, PERALTA, PERKINS -- 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.
                                                           LBD03727-01-5

S. 2831                             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. 2831                             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  any  provision of this act to the contrary, any local
law adopted pursuant to this act shall provide that notwithstanding  any
provision  of such local law in the case where all tenants occupying the
housing accommodation on the  effective  date  of  this  paragraph  have
vacated  the  housing accommodation and a family member of such vacating
tenant or tenants is entitled to and continues  to  occupy  the  housing
accommodation  subject  to the protections of such act, if such accommo-
dation continues to be subject to such  act  after  such  family  member
vacates,  on the occurrence of such vacancy the maximum collectable rent
shall be increased by a sum equal to the allowance then  in  effect  for
vacancy leases for housing accommodations covered by the rent stabiliza-
tion law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine, including the amount allowed by
paragraph  (5-a)  of  subdivision  c of section 26-511 of such law. This
increase shall be in addition to any other  increases  provided  for  in
this  act  and  shall be applicable in like manner to each second subse-
quent succession.
  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.
  S  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; provided further, however, that the amendment to the second  undes-
ignated  paragraph  of  subdivision  5 of section 1 of chapter 21 of the
laws of 1962 made by section one of this act shall not affect the  expi-
ration of such paragraph and shall be deemed to expire therewith.

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Senate Bill S2831

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Housing, Construction And Community Development Committee

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co-Sponsors

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Details

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

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Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Housing, Construction And Community Development Committee

Actions

co-Sponsors

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Details

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2015-S2831 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments