With a Democratic majority in the State Senate, and the support of the proposed President Pro Tem of the Senate, Malcolm Smith, Mitchell-Lama tenants can look forward to the chance of a new law that will

• put all developments leaving Mitchell-Lama or Section 8 projects into rent stabilization without "unique or peculiar" increases.

We need this bill, because it is retroactive and so will cover all the developments taken out of Mitchell-Lama in the past few years - whether they were built before 1974 or later, including those now involved in court cases about "unique or peculiar" increases.

Click on "read more" below for the current text of the Andrea Stewart-Cousins / Gary Pretlow bill.

A HREF="http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A07811&sh=t">A.7811/S. 5284 will be changing its number with the new senate term beginning in January, 2009.

Here is the text, followed by an explanation:

IN SENATE -- Introduced by Sens. STEWART-COUSINS, KRUEGER, CONNOR, DIAZ, DUANE, HASSELL-THOMPSON, ONORATO, OPPENHEIMER, PARKER, PERKINS, SABININI, SAVINO, SCHNEIDERMAN, SERRANO, SMITH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development

IN ASSEMBLY -- Introduced by M. of A. PRETLOW -- read once and referred to the Committee on Housing

AN ACT to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, in relation to limited-profit housing companies and other buildings or structures which received project-based rental assistance

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Section 5 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974 constituting the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four is amended by adding a new subdivision c to read as follows:

• C. NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THIS SECTION, NOTHING SHALL PREVENT THE DECLARATION OF AN EMERGENCY PURSUANT TO SECTION THREE OF THIS ACT FOR RENTAL HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS LOCATED IN BUILDINGS OR STRUCTURES WHICH WERE OWNED BY A COMPANY ESTABLISHED UNDER ARTICLE TWO OF THE PRIVATE HOUSING FINANCE LAW, OTHER THAN A MUTUAL COMPANY, WHICH ARE NO LONGER OWNED BY SUCH COMPANY BY REASON OF A VOLUNTARY DISSOLUTION PURSUANT TO SECTION THIRTY-FIVE OF SUCH LAW OR FOR RENTAL HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS LOCATED IN BUILDINGS OR STRUCTURES DEFINED AS COVERED PROJECTS PURSUANT TO SECTION 8 OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSING ACT OF NINETEEN THIRTY-SEVEN, AS AMENDED, OR ANY SUCCESSOR STATUTE, AND ANY REGULATIONS PROMULGATED THEREUNDER IN WHICH RENTAL HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS RECEIVED PROJECT-BASED RENTAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT PURSUANT TO CONTRACTS WITH THE OWNERS OF SUCH BUILDINGS OR STRUCTURES WHICH EXPIRED OR WERE TERMINATED. THE PROVISIONS OF SUBDIVISION A OF SECTION NINE OF THIS ACT OR OF SUBDIVISION A OF SECTION 26-513 OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE CODE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK SHALL NOT APPLY TO ANY HOUSING ACCOMMODATION WHICH BECAME SUBJECT TO THIS ACT PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SUBDIVISION.

This bill is meant to amend and clarify the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA) of 1974 - the act that puts ALL developments built before 1974 into rent stabilization. The ETPA has a section 9 - put into New York City law as Administrative Code 26-513(a) - which permits DHCR to adjust the rent stabilized rent under "unique or peculiar circumstances."

This bill says that the "unique or peculiar" section does not apply to buildings being taken out of Mitchell-Lama ("Article 2 of the Private Housing Finance Law") or the federal housing program known as Section 8 ("project-based rental assistance from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development").

This bill would apply to all these developments without regard to when they were built, and is retroactive: it "shall apply in the case of housing companies that dissolved or had contracts for rental assistance that expired or were terminated on, before or after" the date the bill becomes law.