BILL NUMBER: S2306
SPONSOR: KRUEGER
 
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 repeals 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 New
York City's home rule powers.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Since 1971, when home rule over rent and eviction protections was
removed, New York City's housing situation has gone from chronic short-
age to acute crisis. According to the 2017 NYC Housing and Vacancy
Survey, the rental vacancy rate is 3.63%; a vacancy rate of less than 5%
creates abnormal market conditions. Rent hardship afflicts poor and
middle-class households alike, with more than half of all tenants paying
at or over the federal hardship level of 30% of income in rent, and
almost one in three households paying more than 50% their income in
rent. Firefighters, nurses, teachers, police officers, construction
workers, seniors, artists and 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. According to a 2018 study by the New York City Rent Guidelines
Board, more than 290,000 rent stabilized units were lost since 1993,
most of them due to high rent and vacancy deregulation. 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 condi-
tions 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 govern-
ment's ability to protect tens of thousands of families facing the
devastating loss of protections under existing Mitchell-Lama and Section
8 programs.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: S.2467/A.4764
2021-2022: S.1037/A.3678
2019-2020: S.1926/A.4122
2017-2018: S.3179/A.5557
2015-2016: S.2831
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.