Establishes the vacant rental improvement program

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Jeremy Zellner says this is needed

New York state is currently facing a housing affordability crisis and a housing quality crisis. With the number of new units being built throughout the state falling in tandem with the number of units getting significant overhauls, finding affordable habitable housing in New York is increasingly a challenge. A high percentage of the rental units in upstate New York's largest cities sit vacant because they have fallen into disrepair. Many small landlords do not have the funds to renovate these units to bring them back up to code. This problem is particularly acute upstate, where the housing stock is aging rapidly, and rising costs have made it difficult for property owners to maintain or improve their property. The problem does not just affect vacant properties; many occupied units are also in dire need of upgrades. Buffalo, for example, has a plethora of homes with outstanding code violations and habitability issues. Getting these units up to code is good for both tenants and landlords. Tenants deserve to live in a habitable space and landlords want to avoid the fines that come with failing to meet standards. In addition, when landlords improve their units, their long-term value increases. Housing quality remains a contentious issue in housing courts throughout the state. Providing the funding for landlords to upgrade their housing stock would serve to remove many cases from the housing court backlog. Bringing homes back up to code and on to the market would go a long way towards addressing the housing crisis. In addition to improving property values for landlords and improving housing quality for tenants, this would also be a long-term boon to municipalities in the form of increased property taxes. Improving the quality of the housing stock will make the region more desirable to live in. Landlords that take the grant money would be required to agree to keep their rents at an affordable rate. This is crucial to ensuring that rents do not rise drastically in response to improved conditions. This bill will both increase the quality of rental housing stock and address affordability.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.