Senate Bill S5366A

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S5366A

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the state finance law and the public
housing law, in relation to establishing the public housing
revitalization fund

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :

This legislation creates the public housing revitalization fund, which
would make moneys available to the New York City Housing Authority
(NYCHA) for the repairs, rehabilitation, reconstruction and upgrade of
projects in poor conditions as long as NYCHA submits a reform plan to
the state laying out how it plans to upgrade and improve its
operations.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

Section one amends the state finance law by adding a new section 99-y
that establishes the public housing revitalization fund. This capital
fund will disburse moneys to NYCHA for the repair, reconstruction,
rehabilitation and upgrade of NYCHA developments according to the
guidelines set forth in the new section 77 of the public housing law,.
The state shall appropriate to this fund an amount of money equal to
the amount made available by the city of New York for the same
purpose, as certified by the State Comptroller and the comptroller of
the city of New York.
              

Section two amends the public housing law by adding a new section 77,
which lays out the requirements under which the State would
appropriate moneys to NYCHA from the public housing revitalization
fund. Funds can be appropriated to NYCHA for the repair,
reconstruction, rehabilitation and upgrade of NYCHA developments that
require work to fix poor structural conditions, such as problems with
walls, roofs, elevators, heating systems including boilers, electrical
systems, water pipes, or other such deficiencies.

No moneys shall be appropriated from this fund after January 1st, 2017
unless the Commissioner of DHCR certifies that NYCHA has submitted a
reform plan that lays out proposals for streamlining and improving
NYCHA's operations. Such a report would include recommendations on
policy changes such as implementing a property centric management
model; ways in which repair and maintenance policies can be changed to
cut wait times significantly; centralizing procurement and cutting
proposal wait times significantly; improving customer service;
reducing internal bureaucracy and improving cycle times; and
developing a long term financial sustainability plan to be updated
biannually.

Section three sets an effective date of one hundred twenty days after
this act shall have become a law.

 JUSTIFICATION :

NYCHA is the largest housing authority in the United States, and its
over 179,000 units are home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers.
Unfortunately, conditions at many NYCHA developments are deplorable.
NYCHA has been called the worst landlord in NYC. A recent report by
the NYC Comptroller found that more than a third of all NYCHA units
had some form of deficiency. The latest NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey
found that more than 30% of YCHA units experience water leaks, and
more than a quarter had suffered from breakdowns in heating equipment.
Not only were conditions at NYCHA apartments worse than those for any
other class of housing stock in NYC, but these figures represented a
worrying decline in the quality of NYCHA housing over the past few
years.

NYCHA needs fiscal assistance to fix these problems. The federal
government is the main source of support for capital needs at NYCHA,
but this support has been declining over the past few years as the
federal government cuts back on funds available for public housing.
Most NYCHA development are more than four decades old, and a long term
underinvestment in its stock has created a massive capital needs gap.
NYCHA currently estimates that unmet capital needs are close to $18
billion.

It's crucial that the State and the City work together to provide
relief for NYCHA's residents by making more capital funding available
for the repair of NYCHA projects whose poor conditions place residents
in harm's way. This proposed fund would make money available to fix
the more dangerous deficiencies, like leaking roofs, broken boilers
and elevators, and cracked walls. The State would make moneys
available for this purpose in the same amounts as New York City.

Even as this legislation recognizes the pressing needs for funds to
repair and rehabilitate aging NYCHA developments, it acknowledges that
for many years the administration of NYCHA has not been up to the
massive tasks it faces. The State needs to have confidence that the
resources it would make available will make a difference, and in order
to have that confidence this legislation would mandate that NYCHA
submit a comprehensive reform plan before any funds would be disbursed
after January 1st, 2016. This comprehensive plan would have to detail
how NYCHA would streamline its maintenance operations to cut wait
times for repairs, improve its procurement practices to cut costs and
speed up orders, reform management practices so that residents receive
more reliable service, and create a long term financial viability plan
that would be updated bi-annually.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

This is a new bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

The amount that the State would appropriate to this fund would be
based on how much money the City of New York makes available for the
purpose of repairing, rehabilitating, reconstructing, or upgrading
NYCHA developments in poor conditions.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the hundred twentieth day after it shall
have become a law.