Relates to requiring the New York city housing authority to contract with non-profit private entities when qualifying for certain programs; requires the New York city housing authority to contract with a non-profit private entity when converting property to Section 8 units in order to qualify for any program that allows such private entity to renovate, repair, maintain and/or operate such New York city housing authority property.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A472
SPONSOR: Epstein TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public housing law, in relation to requiring the New
York city housing authority to contract with non-profit private entities
when qualifying for certain programs
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To prevent private corporations from profiteering off of public housing.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section 402 of the public housing law by adding a new
subdivision 11 stipulating that the New York city housing authority
(NYCHA) shall only contract with a nonprofit entity when converting
property to Section 8 units as part of the rental assistance demon-
stration program or any other program
Section 2 provides the effective date
JUSTIFICATION:
Long term disinvestment at the federal, state, and city level has
created an opening for the private sector to profit off of New York's
public housing in the form of The Department of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment's Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program. Using a combina-
tion of RAD and other programs to convert property to Section 8 units,
New York City plans to hand over roughly a third of its public housing
stock to private landlords.
Private landlords are accountable to tenants and their needs insofar as
it is profitable. There is no shortage of evidence that shows how often
landlords jeopardize the comfort, health, and safety of tenants to boost
their own profits and no reason to believe that private management of
NYCHA would not be susceptible to a similar dynamic.
To avoid further worsening conditions in NYCHA, this bill would prevent
a profit-driven private takeover of public housing by prohibiting NYCHA
from contracting with for-profit entities when converting property to
Section 8 units. Instead, NYCHA would• only be able to contract with
non-profit entities if it wishes to convert property to Section 8 units
through RAD or any other programs.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-2022: A3176 (Epstein) / No Same as - Assembly Housing
2020: A10003/No same as - referred to housing
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Unknown.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Ninety days after becoming law.
