What's happening
This bill allows senior citizens or disabled tenants who left their NYC homes due to COVID-19 to retain primary residency status if they intend to return.
Why it matters
Protects vulnerable tenants. The bill specifically safeguards senior citizens and disabled individuals who left their NYC residences during the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing their heightened health risks and mobility challenges.
Prevents loss of rent-stabilized homes. By allowing these tenants to retain primary residency status if they intend to return, the bill helps them avoid eviction and the potential loss of valuable rent-regulated housing, which can be crucial for affordability and housing stability.
Acknowledges COVID-19 displacement impacts. The amendment formally recognizes the unique circumstances that forced some tenants to leave their homes during the pandemic, setting a legal precedent for considering pandemic-related health concerns in housing law.
Limits landlord challenges. Landlords cannot use a tenant’s temporary absence during the specified COVID-19 period (March 12, 2020–January 1, 2022) as grounds for eviction, reducing legal vulnerability for affected tenants and ensuring that intent to return is honored.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Protect COVID-Displaced Tenants
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
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History
- Referred to housing
- Referred to housing
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1418
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 9, 2025
Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL -- 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 the use of certain residential dwellings by tenants who left the dwelling temporarily due to the health impacts of COVID-19
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Paragraph 11 of subdivision a of section 5 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, as amended by section 1 of part J of chapter 36 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
(11) housing accommodations which are not occupied by the tenant, not including subtenants or occupants, as [his or her] such tenant's primary residence, as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction. For the purposes of determining primary residency, a tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, as defined in section four hundred fifty-nine-a of the social services law, who has left the unit because of such violence, and who asserts an intent to return to the housing accommodation shall be deemed to be occupying the unit as [his or her] such tenant's primary residence. For the purposes of determining primary residency, a tenant who has left the unit between the dates of March 12, 2020 and January 1, 2022 due to the health impacts of COVID-19 in the city of New York and is a senior citizen or is a disabled person as defined in 9 NYCRR 2520.6, and who asserts an intent to return to the housing accommodation shall be deemed to be occupying the unit as such tenant's primary residence. For the purposes of this paragraph, where a housing accommodation is rented to a not-for-profit hospital for residential use, affiliated subtenants authorized to use such accommodations by such hospital shall be deemed to be tenants. For the purposes of this paragraph, where a housing accommodation is rented to a not-for-profit for providing, as of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04296-01-5
and after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand nineteen that amended this paragraph, permanent housing to individuals who are or were homeless or at risk of homelessness, affiliated subtenants authorized to use such accommodations by such not-for-profit shall be deemed to be tenants. No action or proceeding shall be commenced seeking to recover possession on the ground that a housing accommodation is not occupied by the tenant as [his or her] such tenant's primary residence unless the owner or lessor shall have given thirty days notice to the tenant of [his or her] such owner's or lessor's intention to commence such action or proceeding on such grounds.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.