N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 922 – Urban initiative contracts
§ 922. Urban initiative contracts. 1. Within the limit of funds available in the urban initiative program, the corporation is hereby authorized to enter into contracts with eligible applicants to provide state financial assistance for the project costs attributable to urban initiatives projects within neighborhoods. The state financial assistance shall be either in the form of payments, grants or loans, as the corporation shall determine. No more than fifty percent of the total amount appropriated pursuant to this article in any fiscal year shall be allocated to urban initiatives projects located within any single municipality.
Terms Used In N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 922
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Corporation: shall mean the housing trust fund corporation established in section forty-five-a of this chapter. See N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 921
- Eligible applicant: shall mean a not-for-profit corporation or charitable organization, organized for a period of one or more years, which is either incorporated under the not-for-profit corporation law (or such law together with any other applicable law) or, if unincorporated, is not organized for the private profit or benefit of its members and has been engaged primarily in community preservation activities. See N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 921
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Municipality: shall mean any unit of local government within the state with a population of more than twenty thousand persons. See N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 921
- Neighborhood: shall mean an area within the municipality identified by recognized or established boundaries consistent with a determination of neighborhood eligibility under article sixteen of this chapter. See N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 921
- Persons of low income: shall mean those persons and families whose incomes do not exceed eighty percent of the median income for the metropolitan statistical area in which a project is located. See N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 921
- projects: shall mean a specific work or series of works for the revitalization and improvement of a neighborhood through creation, preservation or improvement of residential housing units; preservation or improvement of local commercial facilities and public facilities or other aspects of the area environment which include as part of its project the creation, preservation or improvement of residential housing units. See N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law 921
2. The total state payment pursuant to any one contract shall not exceed two hundred thousand dollars and the contract shall provide for completion of the project within a reasonable period, as specified therein which shall not in any event exceed two years from its commencement. Up to ten percent of the project cost may be used for the eligible applicant's operating expenses including expenses related to organization operating support and administration of the contract.
3. The corporation shall require that, in order to receive funds pursuant to this article, the eligible applicant must submit an operating plan which shall include but not be limited to project feasibility, leveraging, impact on the community, group capability, and affirmative action and minority business participation. Such plan shall be submitted pursuant to a request for proposals issued by the corporation.
4. The eligible applicant which proposes to contract with the corporation shall be a bona fide organization or a successor organization with appropriate experience in community revitalization activities and shall demonstrate by its immediate past and current activities that it has, or shows that it can acquire, the capability and expertise to successfully complete the proposed project. The eligible applicant's officers, directors and members must be representative of the residents and other legitimate interests of the neighborhood.
5. Occupant selection procedures shall be established which provide that any lawful occupants who live in a project prior to rehabilitation shall not be displaced as a result of such rehabilitation, other than temporarily, in which case suitable relocation arrangements shall be provided, and that any additional occupants who move into a project are persons of low income. Preference in selection of such additional occupants (i) shall be given to persons or families with the lowest incomes possible, given the income requirements of the project; and (ii) shall also be given to persons or families whose current housing fails to meet basic standards of health and safety and who have little prospect of improving the condition of their housing except by residing in a project receiving payments, grants or loans under this article.
6. For any application for such a contract under this article, the corporation shall provide the applicant with a list of conditions that must be met prior to entering into a contract pursuant to this article. Within fifteen working days of receipt by the corporation of all documents in satisfaction of the list, the corporation shall notify the applicant of the sufficiency or insufficiency of the documents. After satisfaction by the applicant of all conditions required by the corporation prior to entering into a contract the corporation shall enter into the contract within forty-five working days of satisfaction of such conditions.