A 745: Relates to eliminating rent for homeless shelters; provides that a homeless individual or family applying for or receiving temporary housing assistance shall not be required to pay to any local or state government or agency or any provider, room and board or contribute any earned or unearned income, available benefits or resources to eliminate their need for temporary housing assistance or as a condition to receive temporary housing assistance from such provider.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 745 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. HEVESI, LAVINE, CRUZ, SIMON, HUNTER, EPSTEIN, FORREST, PAULIN, ROSENTHAL, SLATER, DE LOS SANTOS -- read once and referred to the Committee on Social Services AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to eliminating rent for homeless shelters; and to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 36-c of the social services law is REPEALED. 2 § 2. Section 131 of the social services law is amended by adding a new 3 subdivision 21 to read as follows: 4 21. a. Any temporary housing assistance provider found to be collect- 5 ing income, room and board or any other type of contribution in 6 violation of subdivision sixteen of section one hundred thirty-one-a of 7 this title, shall, after notice and an opportunity to be heard by the 8 department, be required to return any funds collected in violation of 9 this section to such recipient and may be subject to a civil penalty not 10 to exceed five hundred dollars for each violation. The department shall 11 adopt procedures in accordance with the state administrative procedure 12 act for assessment of penalties pursuant to this section. Such procedure 13 shall include the opportunity for an administrative appeal. Any provider 14 found to have violated this section and who is subsequently found to 15 have violated this section five or more times within one year of the 16 initial finding may be determined, at the discretion of the department 17 and taking into consideration the geographic availability of similar 18 services, to be ineligible to receive public funding for a period not to 19 exceed five years. 20 b. Any provider which has been deemed ineligible to receive public 21 funding pursuant to this section may apply to the department for an 22 order discontinuing such disqualification. The application shall set EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01368-01-5 
 A. 745 2 1 forth the grounds, including that the provider has taken sufficient 2 actions to remove from responsibility officers and employees who engaged 3 in the actions that formed the basis of the violation, that the provider 4 has taken appropriate and sufficient actions to ensure that the actions 5 that formed the basis of the violation are unlikely to recur, and that 6 it will not be in the public interest to continue the disqualification. 7 § 3. Section 131-a of the social services law is amended by adding a 8 new subdivision 16 to read as follows: 9 16. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to 10 the contrary, a homeless individual or family applying for or receiving 11 temporary housing assistance shall not be required to pay to any local 12 or state government or agency or any provider, room and board or 13 contribute any earned or unearned income, available benefits or 14 resources to eliminate their need for temporary housing assistance or as 15 a condition to receive temporary housing assistance. For the purposes 16 of this subdivision, temporary housing assistance or short-term housing 17 shall include, but not be limited to, a family shelter, an adult family 18 shelter, a cluster site apartment, a shelter for adults, a United States 19 Department of Housing and Urban Development assisted transitional hous- 20 ing shelter, a public home, a hotel, an emergency apartment, a domestic 21 violence shelter, a runaway and homeless youth shelter, a room and board 22 shelter, a safe haven shelter, a veterans short-term housing shelter, a 23 criminal justice short-term housing shelter, or a safe house for refu- 24 gees, asylees, or trafficking victims operating in New York state. 25 § 4. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall 26 have become a law.