Center for NYC Neighborhoods State Legislative Priorities 2023

3 min readMay 31, 2023

The Center for NYC Neighborhoods and the Black Homeownership Project are releasing their 2023 State Legislative Agendas in order to advocate for the passing of bills focused on affordable homeownership, including: tenant opportunity to purchase, home repair, deed theft, title insurance, and public banking. You can find more information about the Black Homeownership Project’s Legislative Priorities here.

Housing Affordability, Resiliency, and Energy Efficiency Investment Act of 2023 (HAREEI)

S2985 (Sponsor: Brian Kavanagh)

Affordability+ legislation streamlines the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s loan granting authority to promote affordable homeownership and economic equity by providing:

Longer loan terms and extensions to existing loans to support LMI homeowners.
Loans for land acquisition and refinancing to preserve affordable homeownership units.
A pathway for legal basement dwellings by eliminating the statutory limit on loan amounts.

Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA)

S221 (Sponsor: Zellnor Myrie) A3353 (Sponsor: Marcela Mitaynes)

This innovative, yet proven, housing model prevents the displacement of lower-income tenants by providing a pathway to purchase the building in which they are renters, either collectively or individually.

Advancing Community Land Trusts (CLTs)

CLT Acquisition Funding Bill
S2506A (Sponsor: Brian Kavanagh) A5865 (Sponsor: Demond Meeks)

Creates an acquisition fund to provide Community Land Trusts with resources to acquire land and development opportunities to expand the State’s growing community land trust network and affordable homeownership stock.

CLT Taxation Bill
A1894 (Sponsor: Maritza Davila)

This legislation provides much-needed tax relief to CLT properties by exempting the land owned by CLTs from the local property tax law and provides a partial tax exemption for homes built on CLTs. It provides guidance to local assessors evaluating CLTs for the purpose of assigning property taxes.

The Protect Our Homes and Communities, Stop Predatory Housing Speculation Act of 2023

S1569 (Sponsor: Julia Salazar) A1023 (Sponsor: Catalina Cruz)

This bill seeks to create more opportunity and equity in the housing market for first time homebuyers by creating a disincentive for predatory real estate speculators to engage in the destabilizing conduct of home flipping.
The bill imposes a tax on the transfer of certain residential properties sold within two years of purchase.
Future advocacy in this area will seek to exempt certain purchases of residential properties from mortgage recording taxes as well as the imposition of a tax on the transfer of certain properties in NYC which are sold for one million dollars or more.

Affordable Title Insurance

S4539 (Sponsor: Jessica Ramos) A8574 (Sponsor: Harvey Epstein)

This legislation would ideally establish a New York Title Guaranty Program and Corporation that would be charged with overseeing and administering fair and equitable title insurance regulations.
The Corporation would also create a fixed rate of charge for title insurance to tamper down the exorbitant cost of title insurance and include a premium for state administrative costs.
New York State should also establish a statewide electronic database of all real property in the state with all title information included.

Basement and Cellar Unit Legalization

S2276 (Sponsor: Brian Kavanagh) A1075 (Sponsor: Harvey Epstein)

This bill authorizes New York City to establish a program to convert dwellings in basements and cellars into safe and legal housing.
Under the bill, New York City would get the local control, legal tools, and discretion it needs to create a program to bring existing illegal basement units into conformance with the state’s safety standards without having to comply with elements of the state multiple dwelling law that have historically inhibited the formalization of these units, including the State’s ban on basement apartments except in very limited circumstances.
With the authority provided in the bill, the City would be set to provide relief to homeowners facing penalties for illegal apartments as well as to unprotected tenants under terms it would create through its own legislative process.