BILL NUMBER: S4659A
SPONSOR: KAVANAGH
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seven-
ty-four, in relation to enacting the rent emergency stabilization for
tenants act on local determinations of a housing emergency
 
PURPOSE:
This bill defines how a locality other than New York City may declare a
housing emergency in its jurisdiction for the purpose of adopting tenant
protections under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA).
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 establishes the short title for this act as the "rent emergen-
cy stabilization for tenants act."
Section 2 amends Section 3 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of
1974 to provide that villages, towns, and cities other than the City of
New York may choose to determine a housing emergency using one of two
methods.
-- The municipality may, after considering publicly available data and
holding public hearings, declare a housing emergency based on (but not
limited to) factors that measure overall housing supply, vacancy rate
for housing accommodations, the availability of affordable and habitable
housing accommodations, rent burdens for tenants, or other measures of
housing affordability such as the local or regional homelessness rate
and the need for regulating rents in that locality.
-- In the alternative, the municipality may declare a housing emergency
based on a study of vacancy rates in rental housing, pursuant to a proc-
ess that is unchanged by this bill.
In villages, towns, and cities other than New York City in which the
local government has already opted in to rent stabilization before the
effective date of this act, the local government may similarly use
either of these two methods to add buildings not built or substantially
rehabilitated within the past 15 years under the provisions of the new
paragraph 5 -b, summarized below.
The manner in which the City of New York may declare a housing emergency
is also unchanged by this bill.
Section 2 also authorizes villages, towns, and cities other than the
City of New York to provide for rent stabilization in buildings with
fewer than six units if they choose.
Section 3 adds a new paragraph 5 -b to subdivision a of section 5 of
section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974 to specify that in
villages, towns, and cities other than the City of New York that provide
for rent regulation, buildings that were built or substantially rehabil-
itated within the past 15 years, are exempt from regulation; under the
ETPA currently, buildings that were built or substantially rehabilitated
after January 1, 1974 are exempt, unless they are regulated pursuant to
another law or regulation.
Section 4 sets forth the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Rent stabilization in localities other than New York City is governed by
the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 (ETPA). Under the ETPA in
its original form, municipalities in Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester
counties may adopt rent stabilization if they declare a state of housing
emergency, defined as having a rental housing vacancy rate of less than
5%. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA)
amended the ETPA so that any municipality in the state may opt into rent
stabilization if it meets the emergency declaration criteria. According
to HCR's most recent data, 16 municipalities in Nassau, 2 in Rockland,
21 in Westchester, and 1 in Ulster (the City of Kingston) have adopted
rent stabilization.
The Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants Act (REST) recognizes that,
in addition to vacancy rate, publicly available data on a locality's
eviction rate, homeless shelter population, renters' housing cost
burdens, and other relevant indicators can also demonstrate a locality's
lack of housing availability, affordability, and stability. For example,
eviction filing data in each county is available and updated monthly on
the NYS Office of Court Administration's Statewide Landlord Tenant
Eviction Dashboard, and localities may have access to data on their
local homeless shelters. These metrics can paint a fuller picture of a
locality's housing needs and can fulfill the ETPA's requirement that
localities may institute rent regulation only after declaring a housing
emergency. At the same time, there may be localities that wish to
declare an emergency pursuant to the existing process, based on the
vacancy rate; this bill leaves that process unchanged.
REST also seeks to modernize the ETPA so that localities adopting rent
stabilization may do so in a way that makes sense for the here and now.
The ETPA in its current form extends rent stabilization to buildings
with six or more units, an easy threshold to reach in high-density New
York City where multifamily residential buildings are more common.
Recognizing that the mix of housing varies widely across the state, this
legislation would allow localities to set a lower building size thresh-
old for rent stabilization coverage if they choose. Finally, when the
ETPA was first passed in June 1974, the law brought into rent stabiliza-
tion all the eligible buildings that had been constructed at that point
- built on or before January 1, 1974. This eligibility date has not
changed in over 50 years. More recently, when the legislature enacted
the Good Cause Eviction bill, it exempted all buildings built within the
last 15 years. This legislation would reflect the ETPA's original intent
of enabling localities, outside of New York City, to provide rent
stabilization protections to a substantial portion of their housing, not
just to buildings that are half a century old, by including buildings
constructed or substantially rehabilitated more than 15 years ago.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STATE:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.