State lawmakers may not be returning to Albany this week with a voracious appetite for housing policy.
Legislators managed to cross a number of issues off their list last year. The state budget included hotly debated housing measures, including a replacement for a lucrative property tax break, new eviction protections and the lifting of a rule that stunted residential construction in the city.
Even with those long-sought policies out of the way, other housing and real estate issues are already competing for attention. After all, a blitz of policies in a state budget can’t alone solve the housing crisis.
“There can be no such thing as fatigue when it comes to housing,” Assembly member Linda Rosenthal said. “Others may want to turn the page, but I don’t think we should.”
The legislative session officially started Wednesday, and Rosenthal said she is hopeful that without last year’s contentious issues sucking the oxygen out of the room, she and her colleagues can focus on others, including establishing a state-run housing voucher program. The proposal, which has been reintroduced, has garnered support from both chambers, as well as tenant and landlord groups, but faced resistance from the governor.
Meanwhile, the Real Estate Board of New York is playing defense on some of Rosenthal’s bills, including one that would limit ground lease rent increases at residential co-ops. The bill was introduced in 2023 and gained momentum in the 11th hour of the last legislative session, but REBNY has called it unconstitutional. Sen. Liz Krueger introduced an amended version of the bill in the final days of the legislative session, and Rosenthal said she is “tinkering” with the measure before reintroducing it.
REBNY is also eyeing a measure that would bar landlords from using algorithms to set residential rents and efforts to limit facial recognition and other technologies at buildings. Other federal and state lawmakers have proposed legislation targeting software used by RealPage and similar companies. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its anti-trust criminal investigation into RealPage’s pricing practices, but this week expanded its lawsuit against the company to include six major landlords.
Additionally, the trade group is watching efforts to change the rules around dual agency in residential brokerage.
REBNY is part of the Five Borough Jobs Campaign coalition, supporting the extension of a program that provides income tax credits to businesses that move jobs from outside New York City or below 96th Street in Manhattan to certain locations above 96th Street or one of the other boroughs. The Relocation and Employment Assistance Program, or REAP, expires this year.
The Citizens Budget Commission has urged against renewing the program until its effectiveness has been evaluated.
Landlord and tenant group priorities
Landlord groups will push for changes to rent stabilized apartments, but are backing off a bill that would have allowed one-time rent resets in certain vacated apartments — at least for now.
“We just don’t think, in the short term, we can wait for that battle to happen,” said Jay Martin, of the New York Apartment Association.
In the interim, his group is pursuing a new bill that would allow some owners of vacant rent stabilized units to rent their units to Section 8 voucher holders and collect the full voucher amount. That proposal has already received pushback from Housing Justice for All, a campaign backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which said such a policy would undermine rent stabilization.
Sen. Brian Kavanagh said he is interested in looking at ways to alleviate insurance and property tax costs, potentially by adjusting property tax burdens for buildings that are entirely or mostly rent stabilized. Jay Martin has promoted the creation of a state-backed insurance program.
Housing Justice for All scored a win last year with the passage of good cause eviction in the state budget, but argued that its effectiveness was watered down by the exceptions baked into the policy.
This year the group will be focused on the Social Housing Authority bill, which would create a state developing entity that would build and own affordable housing. Creating a new version of public housing, however, would require considerable investment (supporters have called for an initial $5 billion). Convincing the legislature that this is the best use of the funds, given the history of public housing in New York, may also be a tough sell.
The state-based housing voucher program and the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act, or TOPA, are also among the group’s top priorities. TOPA would give tenants first dibs on buying their buildings if they are put up for sale. Some owners have argued that the measure could needlessly interrupt sales.
Campaign coordinator Cea Weaver also said the group is working to get a bill introduced that would reform the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which approves rent increases on the city’s stabilized housing stock. A number of mayoral candidates have pledged to freeze the rent if they are elected, though such authority lies with the board.
Other unfinished business
This session may also see the return of the Faith-based Affordable Housing Act, which would make it easier for religious organizations to build affordable housing on their property.
Elsewhere, Kavanaugh noted that lawmakers will also consider offering more cash to some programs that were funded last year. For example, the last budget included $40 million to help owners pay for repairs needed to bring vacant apartments online.
Kavanagh said he wants to expand a program that provides eviction prevention funds to communities outside the city. Last year’s budget allocated $10 million for the program. Of course, the Republican-controlled Congress could upend the state’s budget by cutting funding to New York.
Construction wages could also be on the docket. Kevin Elkins, of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, said his union is focused on “closing loopholes” in the state law governing what publicly funded projects must pay prevailing construction wages. Such wage requirements kick in when project costs exceed $5 million and if 30 percent of the project is funded through public money. Sen. Jessica Ramos proposed a bill in 2023 that would require prevailing wages when projects costing more than $5 million receive any public funding.
Some policy initiatives have longer horizons. Martin said his group wants to get lawmakers thinking about the future of the J-51 tax abatement, which provides property owners with an abatement equal to as much as 70 percent of the cost of major building renovations over the course of up to 20 years.
The City Council revived an amended version of the program in December, but time is already running out because this version expires in June 2026. Martin has been critical of the new program, especially its affordability requirements. To be eligible, rental buildings must be at least 50 percent affordable, part of the state’s Mitchell-Lama program, or receive “substantial government assistance.” Condos and co-ops must have an assessed valuation of less than $45,000 per unit to qualify.
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Martin said the hope is to begin discussions on J-51 this year, so that a bill is ready to go for next year’s session.
State and city lawmakers, however, have not shown much urgency around renewing the program. It took the state one year after the program expired in 2022 to pass legislation authorizing a new version of the program, and then another year after that for the City Council to act.