§ 1281. Definitions. For the purposes of this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

1. "Corporation" shall mean the housing trust fund corporation established pursuant to section forty-five-a of this chapter.

2. "Appropriate nonprofit organization" shall mean a not-for-profit corporation formed pursuant to the not-for-profit corporation law and exempt pursuant to section 501(c)(3) or 502(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1984 as amended and that:

(a) Has as one of such organization's primary purposes:

(i) The provision of housing that is affordable to low-income families; or

(ii) The provision of services or housing for individuals or families experiencing homelessness; or

(b) Is otherwise considered by the state as a suitable housing management organization, by a vetting process developed by the corporation.

3. "Affordable housing" shall mean permanent housing that is affordable to low and moderate-income households, such that the new housing achieves income averaging at or below sixty percent of the area median income, with residents' eligibility capped at a maximum of eighty percent of the area median income at the start of their lease. Applicants shall not be rejected from eligibility based on credit histories or credit scores.

4. "Building service employee" shall mean any person who is regularly employed at, and performs work in connection with the care or maintenance of, a converted property in a city with a population of one million or more, including but not limited to, a watchman, guard, doorman, building cleaner, porter, handyman, janitor, gardener, groundskeeper, elevator operator and starter, or window cleaner.

5. "Distressed" shall mean an available asset that is financially distressed as determined by the corporation.

6. "Exempt supportive housing" shall mean converted property for which a nonprofit organization has:

(a) entered into a regulatory agreement with a federal, state, or local government entity in a city with a population of one million or more that requires:

(i) at least fifty percent of the residential units in such converted property be reserved for homeless, disabled individuals or homeless families with a disabled head-of-household; and

(ii) the provision of on-site supportive services to the residents of at least fifty percent of the residential units; and

(b) the remaining fifty percent of the residential units in such converted property rented to households earning, on average, up to eighty percent of the area median income, adjusted for household size.

7. "Experiencing homelessness" shall refer to those individuals residing in shelters, transitional housing, public spaces, and other types of emergency housing.

8. "Fiscal officer" shall mean the comptroller of the city of New York or other analogous officer of such city.

9. "Prevailing wage" shall mean the rate of wages and supplemental benefits paid in the locality to workers in the same trade or occupation and annually determined by the fiscal officer in accordance with the provisions of § 234 of the labor law.

10. "Rent stabilized" shall mean collectively, the rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine, the rent stabilization code, and the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, all as in effect as of the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand twenty-one that added this subdivision or as amended thereafter, together with any successor statutes or regulations addressing substantially the same subject matter.

11. "Small converted property" shall mean a converted property project (a) to improve no more than one hundred nineteen residential units in one or more buildings; and (b) which has received financial assistance pursuant to this article.