2013 New York Consolidated Laws
PVH - Private Housing Finance
Article 16 - (901 - 910) NEIGHBORHOOD PRESERVATION COMPANIES
903 - Contracts with neighborhood preservation companies.

 
    §  903.  Contracts  with  neighborhood  preservation companies. 1. The
  commissioner may enter into  contracts  with  neighborhood  preservation
  companies  for  the performance of neighborhood preservation activities.
  Such contracts shall be entered into, however,  only  after  appropriate
  findings  by  the  commissioner  and shall be subject to the limitations
  hereinafter set forth.
    2. Prior to entering into a contract with a neighborhood  preservation
  company,   the   commissioner   shall  have  made  a  finding  that  the
  neighborhood in which  the  activities  are  proposed  to  be  conducted
  contains  a  significant  amount of deteriorating or substandard housing
  which is not being adequately repaired, renovated, upgraded,  modernized
  or  rehabilitated under existing programs so as to provide sound housing
  at costs which the residents of such neighborhoods can afford; that  the
  neighborhood  preservation  company  which proposes to contract with the
  commissioner is a bona  fide  organization  which  shall  have  been  in
  existence  either  as  a  corporation or as an unincorporated, organized
  group and performing significant  neighborhood  preservation  activities
  for  at least one full year prior to entering into any contract with the
  commissioner and which shall have demonstrated by its immediate past and
  current  activities  that  it  has  the  ability  to  preserve,  repair,
  maintain,    renovate,   rehabilitate,   manage   or   operate   housing
  accommodations  or  to  engage  in   other   neighborhood   preservation
  activities  in  such  neighborhood;  that  the neighborhood preservation
  activities which are to be performed pursuant to the  proposed  contract
  are  needed  by the neighborhood; and that the neighborhood preservation
  company possesses or will acquire or gain access to the requisite staff,
  office facilities within such neighborhood, equipment and  expertise  to
  enable  it  to  perform  the  activities  which it proposes to undertake
  pursuant to such contract; provided,  however,  that  merged  companies'
  office  facilities  may be located outside such neighborhood if they are
  located in a municipality wholly contained within the merged  companies'
  neighborhood,  and provided further, however, that it shall not be a bar
  to the  commissioner's  contracting  with  a  neighborhood  preservation
  company  that  one  or  more organizations, whether pursuant to contract
  with the commissioner or not, are conducting  neighborhood  preservation
  activities wholly or partially within the same neighborhood.
    3.  In  determining  to  enter  into  a  contract  with a neighborhood
  preservation company pursuant to this article,  the  commissioner  shall
  investigate, to the extent which he shall deem necessary or appropriate,
  and determine;
    (a)  that the geographic boundaries proposed by the applicant for such
  a contract define a  recognized  or  established  neighborhood  or  area
  within the municipality;
    (b)  that  the  demographic and other relevant data pertaining to such
  neighborhood indicate  that  the  neighborhood  has  sustained  physical
  deterioration,  decay,  neglect  or  disinvestment,  that  a substantial
  proportion  of  the  residential  population   that   the   neighborhood
  preservation company proposes to assist through its activities is of low
  income  and  that such neighborhood is in need of active intervention to
  effect its preservation, stabilization or improvement;
    (c) that the activities proposed to be conducted by  the  neighborhood
  preservation company are reasonably calculated to have a positive effect
  on the preservation, stabilization or improvement of the neighborhood;
    (d)  that  the neighborhood preservation company's officers, directors
  and members  are  fairly  representative  of  the  residents  and  other
  legitimate  interests of the neighborhood, that they will carry out such
  a contract in a  responsible  manner  and  that  at  least  thirty-three

  percent  of  the  directors of the neighborhood preservation company are
  residents of the neighborhood;
    (f)  that  the  fees  received  or  proposed  to  be  received  by the
  neighborhood  preservation  company  from  the  management  of   housing
  accommodations are fair and reasonable;
    (g)  that  the plan submitted by the neighborhood preservation company
  demonstrates that such  company  will,  to  the  extent  possible,  give
  priority  when hiring new employees to residents of the neighborhood who
  are either unemployed or not fully employed;
    (h)  that  the  neighborhood  preservation  company  has  a  plan   to
  facilitate,  to  the  maximum  extent  feasible,  the disposition of any
  buildings containing housing accommodations  owned  by  the  company  to
  individual  occupants  thereof  or  to  cooperative groups whose members
  shall be occupants thereof; and
    (i) that the  interests  of  occupants  of  any  buildings  containing
  housing  accommodations  owned  by the neighborhood preservation company
  are adequately represented.
    4. Contracts entered into  hereunder  with  neighborhood  preservation
  companies  shall  be limited in duration to periods of one year, but may
  thereafter be renewed, extended or succeeded by new contracts from  year
  to  year  in  the discretion of the commissioner; they shall define with
  particularity the neighborhood  or  portion  thereof  within  which  the
  neighborhood  preservation  activities  shall  be  performed; they shall
  specify the nature of the  neighborhood  preservation  activities  which
  shall  be  performed  including  the  approximate  number  of buildings,
  residential dwelling units and local retail and  service  establishments
  which  shall  be  affected; they shall locate and describe, with as much
  particularity as is reasonably possible, the buildings with  respect  to
  which  such  activities shall be performed during the contract term; and
  they  shall  specify  the  number  of  persons,  salaries  or  rates  of
  compensation  and  a description of duties of those who shall be engaged
  by the neighborhood  preservation  company  to  perform  the  activities
  embraced  by  the contract together with a schedule of other anticipated
  expenses.
    5. Prior to renewing or extending a contract or entering a  succeeding
  contract  with  a  neighborhood  preservation company the division shall
  determine that:
    (a) the company shall have substantially  completed  the  neighborhood
  preservation  activities  specified  in  the  contract  to  be  renewed,
  extended, or succeeded;
    (b) the company shall have received  the  sums,  services,  and  funds
  specified  in  subdivision  four  of  section  nine hundred four of this
  article; and
    (c) the activities carried out by the company pursuant to its contract
  shall have  had  a  significant  impact  on  the  community's  needs  as
  specified in the contract.
    6.  Prior to terminating, not renewing or not extending a contract the
  division shall:
    (a) determine that the company  is  in  violation  of  the  terms  and
  conditions  of  the  contract  or  that  funds  provided pursuant to the
  contract are being expended in a manner not consistent with the terms of
  the contract or the provisions of this article; or
    (b) determine that necessary and appropriate technical assistance  has
  been  provided  without significant improvement in the activities of the
  company; and
    (c) provide the company with written notice, at least forty-five  days
  in  advance,  of  its  intent  to terminate, not renew or not extend the
  contract and provide the company with an opportunity to  appear  and  be

  heard  before the division with respect to the reasons for such proposed
  termination, non-renewal or non-extension.  At  the  same  time  that  a
  company  is notified of the division's intent to terminate, not renew or
  not  extend  the contract, the division shall likewise inform the senate
  and  assembly  members  who  represent  areas  within   such   company's
  geographic boundaries.
    7. The division shall establish, for renewal of contracts, a procedure
  which  provides  the company with at least forty-five days notice of the
  company's obligations and rights in that process, informs the company of
  the amount of the renewal contract, and facilitates the timely execution
  of the contract and disbursement of funds.
    8. The division may temporarily withhold payments and may elect not to
  renew or extend a contract or  enter  a  succeeding  contract  with  any
  neighborhood  preservation  company  if the company is not in compliance
  with its contract, has without good cause failed to submit documentation
  required under its contract or requested by the  division  to  make  the
  determinations  required  under  subdivision five of this section or has
  not satisfied any other conditions  consistent  with  this  article  for
  renewing or extending a contract or entering a succeeding contract.