N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 901 – Declaration of legislative findings
§ 901. Declaration of legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds and declares that there has developed in recent years, in various municipalities of the state, a growth of community-based not-for-profit organizations, originating for the most part within and organized by residents of neighborhoods which are characterized by a predominance of residents of low income and a residential housing stock which is largely old, deteriorating and substandard.
Terms Used In N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 901
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- Neighborhood preservation activities: shall mean activities engaged in by a neighborhood preservation company within a geographically defined neighborhood of a municipality, provided, however, that the division may fund a neighborhood preservation company to engage in such activities in unserved and underserved areas of the municipality lying outside of its initially designated neighborhood area, that are designed (a) to construct, maintain, preserve, repair, renovate, upgrade, improve, modernize, rehabilitate or otherwise prolong the useful life and to manage and coordinate the rehabilitation of residential dwelling accommodations within such neighborhood, to restore abandoned and vacant as well as occupied housing accommodations to habitable condition; to demolish structurally unsound or unsafe or otherwise unsightly or unhealthy structures which no longer serve or can economically be made to serve a useful purpose consistent with stabilizing or improving a neighborhood; to seal and maintain vacant but structurally sound structures which are capable of being rehabilitated at a future time and used for housing purposes; to acquire, where appropriate, buildings which contain housing accommodations; to facilitate the disposition of buildings containing housing accommodations to individual occupants thereof or to cooperative groups whose members shall be occupants thereof; to assist owners, occupants and tenants of housing accommodations to obtain improvements in the physical conditions thereof and in the maintenance and management thereof; to administer landlord training classes; and to manage housing accommodations as agents for the owners thereof or administrators or receivers appointed or designated pursuant to any law of the state; and (b) to accomplish similar purposes and meet similar needs with respect to retail and service establishments within such neighborhoods when carried out in connection with and incidental to a program of housing related activities. See N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 902
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
The legislature further finds that the involvement of the residents of various municipalities of the state in neighborhood preservation activities in their respective neighborhoods, through the media of locally-based, not-for-profit organizations responsive to the needs of the residents, is in the public interest and may be expected to produce increased renovation and rehabilitation of existing but deteriorating housing accommodations, improvement in housing code enforcement and the correction, removal and repair of substandard housing and housing conditions dangerous to life, safety or health. Such involvement in neighborhood preservation activities may also be expected to produce reduced abandonment of housing, which the legislature finds to be increasing in many neighborhoods of the state and to be continuing to cause shortages of housing accommodations for persons and families of low income and the relocation of such families from neighborhoods to which they have developed strong emotional as well as economic attachments.
The legislature further finds that many municipalities throughout the state are now receiving or will receive monies under federal programs, that such funds may be used and applied by such municipalities for the neighborhood preservation activities referred to in this article and that an efficient and effective use of such funds and the public interest will be promoted by the active involvement of various not-for-profit organizations.
The legislature further finds that numerous not-for-profit organizations which have arisen throughout the state are heavily dependent upon voluntary services of neighborhood residents; that such organizations are dependent in part for operating funds upon fees generated by the management of housing accommodations; that such organizations are dependent for the remainder of their operating funds, to a significant extent, upon gifts and grants from private individuals, corporations and foundations; that such financial assistance is inherently uncertain and covers expenses only over short periods of time, thereby causing such organizations to be inadequately financed, unable to plan any long range housing activities and unable to attract, employ or contract with needed experts and technicians for assistance to implementing neighborhood preservation programs; and that it is a proper and necessary public purpose and activity of the state to assure the adequate funding of not-for-profit organizations which are active in neighborhood preservation activities.
The necessity in the public interest for the provisions hereinafter enacted is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.