STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2289 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 16, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. BAILEY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development AN ACT to amend the private housing finance law, in relation to expand- ing the veterans' preference to include veterans who did not serve during a time of war for certain housing The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 7 of section 31 of the private housing finance 2 law, as amended by chapter 621 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read 3 as follows: 4 7. Preference in admission to a project with an open waiting list, as 5 determined by the commissioner or the supervising agency, shall be given 6 by a mutual company or an urban rental company or by the New York state 7 housing finance agency when subleasing dwellings in projects of such 8 companies pursuant to section forty-four-a of this chapter, to persons 9 or surviving spouses of persons who are veterans as such term is defined 10 pursuant to section eighty-five of the civil service law, regardless of 11 if such veteran served during a time of war. The number of persons 12 given preference as a veteran or a surviving spouse of a veteran shall 13 be published adjacent to the application to be on such waiting list. For 14 projects with a closed list, as determined by the commissioner or the 15 supervising agency, such preference shall be given upon the opening of 16 the waiting list. Notwithstanding the foregoing, persons who are resid- 17 ing in a limited-profit housing project shall be given first priority 18 for an internal transfer in the project in which they are residing in 19 accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the commissioner or 20 the supervising agency. 21 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD05770-01-5