Bill Text: NY A02454 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Relates to eliminating rent for homeless shelters; provides that a homeless individual or family applying for or receiving temporary housing assistance shall not be required to pay to any local or state government or agency or any provider, room and board or contribute any earned or unearned income, available benefits or resources to eliminate their need for temporary housing assistance or as a condition to receive temporary housing assistance from such provider.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-2)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-09 - print number 2454a [A02454 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A02454-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         2454--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 26, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  HEVESI,  REYES, LAVINE, CRUZ, SIMON, HUNTER,
          EPSTEIN,   SEAWRIGHT,   FORREST,   PAULIN,    L. ROSENTHAL,    SLATER,
          DE LOS SANTOS  --  Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. J. M. GIGLIO -- read
          once and referred to the Committee on Social Services  --  recommitted
          to  the  Committee on Social Services in accordance with Assembly Rule
          3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted  as
          amended and recommitted to said committee

        AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to eliminating rent
          for  homeless  shelters;  and to repeal certain provisions of such law
          relating thereto

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 36-c of the social services law is REPEALED.
     2    § 2. Section 131 of the social services law is amended by adding a new
     3  subdivision 21 to read as follows:
     4    21.  a. Any temporary housing assistance provider found to be collect-
     5  ing income, room  and  board  or  any  other  type  of  contribution  in
     6  violation  of subdivision sixteen of section one hundred thirty-one-a of
     7  this title, shall, after notice and an opportunity to be  heard  by  the
     8  department,  be  required  to return any funds collected in violation of
     9  this section to such recipient and may be subject to a civil penalty not
    10  to exceed five hundred dollars for each violation. The department  shall
    11  adopt  procedures  in accordance with the state administrative procedure
    12  act for assessment of penalties pursuant to this section. Such procedure
    13  shall include the opportunity for an administrative appeal. Any provider
    14  found to have violated this section and who  is  subsequently  found  to
    15  have  violated  this  section  five or more times within one year of the
    16  initial finding may be determined, at the discretion of  the  department
    17  and  taking  into  consideration  the geographic availability of similar
    18  services, to be ineligible to receive public funding for a period not to
    19  exceed five years.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04072-03-4
        A. 2454--A                          2

     1    b. Any provider which has been deemed  ineligible  to  receive  public
     2  funding  pursuant  to  this  section  may apply to the department for an
     3  order discontinuing such disqualification.  The  application  shall  set
     4  forth  the  grounds,  including  that  the provider has taken sufficient
     5  actions to remove from responsibility officers and employees who engaged
     6  in the actions that formed the basis of the violation, that the provider
     7  has  taken appropriate and sufficient actions to ensure that the actions
     8  that formed the basis of the violation are unlikely to recur,  and  that
     9  it will not be in the public interest to continue the disqualification.
    10    §  3.  Section 131-a of the social services law is amended by adding a
    11  new subdivision 16 to read as follows:
    12    16. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation  to
    13  the  contrary, a homeless individual or family applying for or receiving
    14  temporary housing assistance shall not be required to pay to  any  local
    15  or  state  government  or  agency  or  any  provider,  room and board or
    16  contribute  any  earned  or  unearned  income,  available  benefits   or
    17  resources to eliminate their need for temporary housing assistance or as
    18  a  condition  to receive temporary housing assistance.  For the purposes
    19  of this subdivision, temporary housing assistance or short-term  housing
    20  shall  include, but not be limited to, a family shelter, an adult family
    21  shelter, a cluster site apartment, a shelter for adults, a United States
    22  Department of Housing and Urban Development assisted transitional  hous-
    23  ing  shelter, a public home, a hotel, an emergency apartment, a domestic
    24  violence shelter, a runaway and homeless youth shelter, a room and board
    25  shelter, a safe haven shelter, a veterans short-term housing shelter,  a
    26  criminal  justice  short-term housing shelter, or a safe house for refu-
    27  gees, asylees, or trafficking victims operating in New York state.
    28    § 4. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day  after  it  shall
    29  have become a law.