BILL NUMBER: S4315
SPONSOR: COMRIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public housing law and the New York city charter, in
relation to authorizing the New York city council to oversee the activ-
ities of the New York city housing authority
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This legislation grants the New York City Council greater oversight over
the activities of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) by giving
the council the ability to mandate that NYCHA produce reports and
provide information to the Council.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one amends the public housing law by adding a new section 402-d
that gives the NYC Council the power to mandate that NYCHA produce
reports about any of its operations by passing a local law. Such a
local law shall determined the information to be included in the report,
whether it is a recurring report or not, and to whom it will be issued.
The commissioner of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal shall
be given copies of any such reports, and the reports shall be treated as
public documents.
Section two amends section twenty nine of the NYC Charter by granting
the NYC Council the same oversight powers over NYCHA that it currently
has over any agency of the NYC government.
Section three sets an effective date of thirty days after this act shall
have become 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, which
represents almost 5% of the population of New York City as a whole.
Unfortunately, the local elected legislators representing these resi-
dents have little oversight powers over NYCHA. While NYCHA as an entity
is chartered under State law, the Mayor of NYC has complete control over
its board, appointing all seven members and choosing the chair at his or
her discretion. For all intents and purposes NYCHA functions as an agen-
cy of NYC, but the ability of the Council to oversee the operations of
NYCHA are strictly limited because it was established as an authority by
the State. This legislation is meant to grant the NYC Council and its
members greater oversight powers over NYCHA.
This bill would grant the NYC Council the same power to review uhe oper-
ations of NYCHA on a continuous basis that it has over city agencies.
The legislation would also give the NYC council the power to mandate the
creation of reports by NYCHA through the passage of a local law.
Currently the NYC Council can not mandate that NYCHA produce any reports
on its operations. Giving the local elected legislators of NYCHA's resi-
dents greater powers to oversee the Authorities operations will increase
the voice of residents and hopefully make NYCHA's operations more trans-
parent.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S2668 Comrie/ A819 Gibbs
S5806 2022
S. 1989 of 2017-18 - Passed Senate.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
No fiscal implications for the State.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have
become a law.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.