Senate Republicans unveil housing legislative package for NY

Posted 27 March 2024 at 8:40 am

Provided photo: State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt speaks during a news conference in Albany, highlighting a housing legislative package.

Press Release, State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt

ALBANY – Senate Republican Leader Robert Ortt and members of the Senate Republican Conference on Tuesday unveiled a comprehensive package of legislation designed to incentivize home ownership, improve access to affordable housing options in communities and help protect homeowners against “squatters.”

The package includes tax credits and incentives, removes regulatory burdens, and incentivizes new construction, as well as continued investment and improvements in existing housing stock.

In addition, it will directly address the recent increase in outrageous cases of “squatters” who inhabit a home without permission from the law-abiding, taxpaying property owners who actually own the home.

“Housing affordability is one of the biggest issues facing our state,” Ortt said. “Our conference has a plan to revitalize our existing housing stock by removing blight from our communities and replacing it with good quality housing units, to work with local communities on what housing strategies are best for them, to expand and create incentives for development, and to establish means-testing for rent-regulated housing to ensure that affordable housing units are occupied by those who truly need them.”

Included in the package unveiled today are proposals that would:

Create a first-time homebuyer tax credit to give new homeowners an income tax credit based on their local property taxes, making the American dream more affordable for New Yorkers (S.8826, Helming);
Create a home renovation tax exemption to provide five years of property tax relief to homeowners who invest in their property. This will incentivize the revitalization of our existing housing stock, bringing abandoned and dilapidated homes back to life and expanding the housing stock of the future (S.8838, Helming);
Establish a housing infrastructure tax credit to provide a credit of up to ten percent of costs for infrastructure projects related to the construction of new homes or multiple dwellings (S.8578, Helming);
Establish a tax credit of up to $2,000 to incentivize the installation of manufactured homes and the expansion of manufactured home communities to provide more affordable housing opportunities (S.8458, Helming);
Provide means-testing for rent-regulated housing to ensure that affordable housing units are occupied by those who need them (S.8887, Martins);
Create a Local Housing Task Force to bring together local government officials, state agencies, and stakeholders to develop best practices to incentivize housing development and address state regulation that prevents development (S.8896, Martins);
Extend the successful 421-a tax incentive for developers (S.7560, Palumbo);
Establish the crime of squatting as criminal trespass in the third degree (S.5979, Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick); and
Expedite the method where a property owner may evict a squatter from residential property (S.8867, Mattera).