2024 Legislative Agenda for Housing Policy

Priorities include apartment restoration, property tax reform, reducing insurance costs and other housing policies to increase supply and reduce costs

Photo by Ryan Fleischer on Unsplash

(New York, NY) — The 2024 New York State legislative session needs to address the growing housing crisis, including creating a pathway for vacant rent-stabilized units to get back on the market after long-term tenancies, ensuring property taxes are not unfairly burdening the city’s most vulnerable residents, and reducing insurance rates for rent-stabilized buildings. The Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), a leading trade group representing more than 4,000 housing providers, will lobby and advocate for these smart housing reforms in 2024. Our goal is to increase the supply of available rental housing and dramatically reduce the operating costs of housing, leading to better quality of life and more affordable rents for tenants.

“Housing in New York is clearly broken, but there is a way to fix it,” CHIP Executive Director Jay Martin said. “The government doesn’t need to throw billions of dollars to solve this ongoing problem. It just needs to create policies designed to grow housing, and implement reforms that will cut costs for both housing providers and renters. New York has been plagued with poor policy for years, creating a system of high rents, scarcity, and frustration amongst New Yorkers with both their housing options and their political leaders. Better policy means better housing. We can’t afford to wait anymore.”

New York State Agenda

Apartment Restoration: CHIP supports legislation that creates a pathway to get vacant rent-stabilized apartments in need of significant renovations back on the market. Tens of thousands of apartments are currently unable to be re-rented due to high renovation costs and rents below operating costs. Apartments with the lowest rents have also had the longest tenancies and are in need of renovations to meet city-mandated requirements before legally being able to be rented out again. Older buildings are grandfathered into prior code requirements, but must meet the new code requirements during renovation work in between tenancies. However, the cost of renovating is prohibitive compared to the stabilized rents, and housing providers are unable to pay for updates to the apartment. Last legislative session, Senator Leroy Comrie and Assemblymember Kenny Burgos introduced the Local Regulated Housing Restoration Adjustment (LRHRA), a bill that would mandate lead removal and code compliant renovations in these units and allow a new rent to be charged that is in line with other stabilized apartments in the geographic area. This law would ensure apartments remain stabilized, lead-free and compliant with all city laws, and available to voucher holders. It would affect approximately 30,000 units immediately and another 100,000 apartments in the future.

Property Tax Reform: New York has an unfair and inequitable property tax system that disproportionately harms the city’s most vulnerable New Yorkers, and especially renters. Multifamily buildings, which do not receive any as-of-right tax breaks or subsidies, pay 5.9 times as much in taxes than a single-family home with the same market value. More than one-third of a rent check goes toward property taxes. Since about half of property taxes go back to the city as revenue for essential services, the most vulnerable New Yorkers end up paying for the services that keep them afloat. CHIP is looking at legislative solutions to ensure rent-stabilized housing isn’t taxed into non-existence and renters aren’t unfairly burdened. One option is the creation of a new tax class for rent-stabilized buildings with more than 35% of their units regulated. We believe this new class should be subject to a tax on their income rather than their assessed value. Rent-stabilized buildings are the largest provider of affordable housing in New York City. Under this new structure, renters would know exactly how much of their rent check would be going to property taxes.

Insurance Costs: Insurance carriers are increasingly exiting the market or refusing to write policies for affordable multifamily housing, and specifically for pre-war rent-stabilized buildings with low rents and a large number of voucher holder tenants. This has led to skyrocketing premiums charged by the remaining carriers. In the Bronx, some housing providers spend up to 25% of their rent collections on insurance premiums, even though they have never had a claim against their buildings. Private housing providers have no choice but to pay higher premiums because a basic level of insurance protection is required by lenders. A government-backed insurance program would protect housing providers and cap the costs. We are asking the State Legislature to develop a program solely for affordable housing providers, capping costs at no more than 8% of rent collection.

CHIP will also be advocating for other legislative priorities that will increase the supply of housing and provide much needed relief to renters:

• Pre-Housing Court Mediation Program: Tens of thousands of renters have significant arrears. Under the current laws, housing providers have no recourse but to file nonpayment proceedings in Housing Court to seek relief, which creates a logjam, puts stress on renters, and fails in its primary purpose. We believe there should be an option for housing providers and tenants to work together to seek assistance for rent arrears outside of the current Housing Court system, and will be exploring all options on both the state and city level.
• Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP): The current vouchers available are not enough to meet the needs of New Yorkers, are difficult to use and complicated for housing providers to navigate due to government bureaucracy. HAVP is a thoughtfully designed voucher that would travel with tenants, allowing them more choice about where they live, and gives housing providers more certainty that the voucher would be paid by the government without delays.
• Transit-Oriented Development & Ending Parking Minimums: These measures would allow more housing to be built in places where people want to live.
• Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs): A strong state policy banning the restrictions on ADUs in backyards and basements would be an efficient zoning amendment that could bring thousands of new homes to New York and make existing homes legal and safe. It would also ease overcrowding and keep families together, improving quality of life.
• Increasing the FAR Cap: The current floor-to-area ratio (FAR) cap for new residential buildings has been in place since 1961 and inhibits the city’s growth. Eliminating the cap could unlock thousands of affordable apartments in New York and give the city an additional tool to create more homes for low-income New Yorkers, especially through negotiations with private developers seeking a rezoning.