Relates to protecting homeless children from lead paint poisoning

Section two amends the real property law to bar discrimination in the leasing of rental property against families receiving public assistance or governmental housing subsidies.

Justification

Lead poisoning of children persists as one of the most prevalent and preventable environmental diseases in New York. At least 10,000 children were newly identified with levels of lead in their blood at 10 micrograms per deciliter (ug/dl) in New York State in 2001. Medical research indicates that children can suffer permanent, irreparable damage at blood levels even lower than 10 ug/dl, and that there is no level of lead ingestion which is without adverse impact. Medical research also indicates that fetal injuries from lead paint can occur if women have elevated blood levels during pregnancy.

Because of this, intervention measures that wait until children have been exposed have limited benefits, and the pursuit of primary prevention, which means eliminating lead hazards before children are exposed, has been recommended by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and promoted by leading experts in the field as a critical course of action to protect the health of young children.

Although New York state banned the sale of lead paint in 1970 (l.1970, ch. 338), seventy-four percent of New York's housing stock was constructed prior to 1970. At least ninety percent of lead-based paint still remaining in occupied housing exists in units built before 1960 (when New York City banned lead-based paint). New York State has both the largest percentage and the largest absolute number of older housing units with lead paint in the nation.

The deterioration of lead-based paint in older residences results in increased expenses each year for the state of New York in the form of special education and other education expenses, medical care for lead-poisoned children, and expenditures for delinquent youth and others needing special supervision. The New York State Department of Health has called for the elimination of childhood lead poisoning in New York State by 2010.

It has recently been reported in various news media that New York City's department of homeless services has been placing homeless families in dwelling units without properly inspecting such units first to assure that they were free of lead-based paint hazards, and that as a result such families have been placed in housing that is hazardous. Social Services Law section 143-b was originally enacted because of "certain existing evils and abuses *** which have caused many tenants, who are welfare recipients, to suffer untold hardships, deprivation of services and deterioration of housing facilities because certain landlords have been exploiting such tenants by failing to make necessary repairs and by neglecting to afford necessary services," (Declaration of purpose and necessity, L.1962, ch. 997, § 1). In upholding the constitutionality of this law, the New York State Court of Appeals explained that "... welfare recipients have even less freedom than other tenants of deteriorated buildings in selecting a place to live ... and the landlords of welfare recipients, secure in their receipt of rents directly from public funds, have even less incentive than other landlords to make repairs." MATTER OF FARRELL V. DREW , 19 NY2d 486, 492 (1967).

This amendment to social services law section 143-b would address the concern that public funds are misused when they support the placement of vulnerable families in housing with lead-based paint hazards. In addition, to address concerns that such amendment would make it more difficult to find landlords willing to lease dwelling units to those on public assistance or otherwise receiving governmental rental subsidies, the real property law would be amended to bar discrimination in the leasing of rental property such families.

Legislative history

2007-2008 Referred to Social Services, Children and Families (S.3043)

Fiscal implications

Minimal.

Effective date

Immediately.