BILL NUMBER: S538
SPONSOR: MARTINS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seven-
ty-four, the emergency housing rent control law and the administrative
code of the city of New York, in relation to establishing tenant eligi-
bility for certain housing accommodations
 
PURPOSE:
To reform the rent-regulated housing system by implementing means-test-
ing.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends the laws constituting the emergency tenant protection
act by adding tenant eligibility provisions, including income limits.
Section 2. Amends the laws constituting the emergency housing rent
control. law by adding tenant eligibility provisions, including income
limits.
Section 3. Amends chapter three of title twenty-six of the administra-
tive code of the city of New York by adding tenant eligibility
provisions, including income limits,
Section 4. Amends chapter four of title twenty-six of the administrative
code of the city of New York by adding tenant eligibility provisions,
including income limits.
Section 5. Directs the division of homes and community renewal and the
department of taxation and finance to promulgate rules and regulations
necessary to implement the act.
Section. 6. Sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
When laws such as the Emergency Tenant Protection Act were created, the
intention was to provide housing security for the most disadvantaged
among us. As the decades have passed since New Yorkers have lived with
these laws, individuals have taken advantage of loopholes in the system
to occupy units at modest rents while they make significantly more than
the individuals those units were intended for. We hear often of how
unaffordable housing is, particularly in New York City, yet we have
thousands of units that we could bring back online and return them to
the people they were meant to help. This bill brings common sense reform
and closes loopholes in the rent-regulated housing system so that the
balance of fairness that was intended when the system was created is
restored.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
S.8887A; Referred to Housing, Construction and Community Development
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately