BILL NUMBER:  S4551

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to
discrimination in the ownership of cooperative housing

 PURPOSE :

Many prospective cooperators are arbitrarily and discriminatorily
rejected. By requiring cooperative apartment corporations to provide a
statement of reasons, this bill will serve to reduce the incidence of
such rejections.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

This bill amends Civil Rights Law § 19-a to require a cooperative
apartment corporation to provide a prospective purchaser with a
written statement of reasons whenever the corporation withholds its
consent to the sale of the corporation's stock.

 EXISTING LAW :

Cooperative apartment corporations currently are not required to
inform prospective purchasers of the reasons for their rejection.

 JUSTIFICATION :

              

Cooperative ownership in multi-family dwellings is becoming an
extremely popular form of home ownership in New York State. In 1971,
the Legislature enacted section 19-a of the Civil Rights Law, which
prohibits cooperative apartment corporations from discriminating
against prospective purchasers on the basis of race, religion,
national origin or sex. Such discrimination nevertheless remains a
widespread problem. See, e.g., BACHMAN V. STATE DIVISION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS, 104 A.D. 2d 111 (1st Dept. 1984); ROBINSON V. 12 LOFTS REALTY,
INC., 610 F. 2d 1032 (2d Cir. 1979); ROGERS V. 66-36 YELLOWSTONE BLVD.
COOPERATIVE OWNERS, INC., 599 F.  Supp. 79 (E.D.N.Y. 1984); see also
SANDERS V. WINSHIP, 57 N.Y. 2d 391 (1982).

As the Court of Appeals has declared, "discrimination is rarely so
obvious or its practices so overt that recognition of it is instant
and conclusive, it being accomplished usually by devious and subtle
means." 300 GRAMATAN AVENUE ASSOCIATES V. STATE DIVISION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS, 45 N.Y. 2d 176 (1978). At present, proving discrimination by
cooperative apartment corporations is even more difficult than proving
housing discrimination in other contexts.

First, because the decision to reject a prospective cooperator
generally is made by an admissions committee, and the individuals on
the committee may purport to have acted for different reasons, it is
difficult to determine whether the motivating factor for the rejection
was discriminatory.

Second, "testing" for cooperative discrimination by the use of paired
minority and non-minority apartment seekers is harder than "testing"
for discrimination in rental housing because the process of purchasing
a cooperative apartment is much more complicated than the process of
renting an apartment. Requiring cooperative apartment corporations to
state reasons for rejecting prospective tenant shareholders has been
recognized as an effective means of reducing the ability of such
corporations to mask discriminatory conduct. In ROGERS V. 66-36
YELLOWSTONE BLVD. COOPERATIVE OWNERS, a federal court required a New
York City cooperative apartment corporation which had violated federal
fair housing laws to provide a statement of reasons to rejected
minority applicants. If this bill is enacted, a cooperative apartment
corporation will not be able to create after-the-fact justifications
when a rejected purchaser challenges as pretextual the corporation's
reasons for refusing to permit a sale.  The legislation thus will help
prevent discriminatory rejections, and will further the goal of equal
housing opportunity.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

01/13/16 Referred to Codes

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None

 LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None

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