N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law § 1101: Definitions

§ 1101. Definitions. For the purposes of this article:

1. "Commissioner" shall mean the commissioner of the state division of

housing and community renewal.

2. "Corporation" shall mean the housing trust fund corporation

established by section forty-five-a of this chapter.

3. "Rehabilitation" shall mean all work necessary to bring a

residential property into compliance with all applicable laws and

regulations including but not limited to the installation, replacement

or repair of heating, plumbing, electrical and related systems and the

elimination of all hazardous and immediately hazardous violations in the

structure in accordance with state and local laws and regulations of

state and local agencies. Rehabilitation may also include reconstruction

or work to improve the habitability or prolong the useful life of the

residential property.

4. "Cooperative project" or "condominium project" shall mean any

vacant residential or nonresidential property, or any portion thereof,

or any distressed residential property, which, subsequent to conversion

or rehabilitation under this article, will be owned as a cooperative or

a condominium or new residential construction to be owned as a

cooperative or a condominium.

5. "Homesteading project" shall mean any vacant residential or

nonresidential property, or any portion thereof, or any distressed

residential property, or any new residential construction which,

subsequent to construction, conversion or rehabilitation under this

article, will contain less than five dwelling units, have at least one

owner occupant and not be owned as a cooperative or a condominium.

6. "Rental project" shall mean any vacant residential or

nonresidential property, or any portion thereof, or any distressed

residential property, or any new residential construction which,

subsequent to construction, conversion or rehabilitation under this

article, will be owned and operated as rental residential property.

7. "Eligible applicant" shall mean a person of low income, a housing

development fund company incorporated pursuant to article eleven of this

chapter, a not-for-profit corporation or charitable organization which

has as one of its primary purposes the improvement of housing for

persons of low income, a wholly-owned subsidiary of such a corporation

or organization, a partnership at least fifty percent of the controlling

interest of which is held by such a corporation or organization and

which has agreed to limit profits or rate of return of investors in

accordance with a formula established or approved by the corporation or

a private developer which has agreed to limit profits or rate of return

of investors in accordance with a formula established or approved by the

corporation, a city, town or village, or a county, provided, however,

that the county is only acting as an administrator of a program under

which projects are rehabilitated or constructed or nonresidential

properties are converted by other eligible applicants, or a municipal

housing authority created pursuant to the public housing law, provided,

however, that any real property of such housing authority to be

rehabilitated, constructed or converted under this article shall not

have been financed pursuant to the provisions of the public housing law

and shall not have been owned by such authority prior to July first,

nineteen hundred eighty-six and provided further, however, that persons

of low income shall not be direct recipients of payments, grants or

loans from the corporation under this article but may receive such funds

from another eligible applicant.

8. "Conversion" shall mean all work necessary to convert

nonresidential property into a cooperative or condominium, homesteading

or rental rehabilitation project.

9. "Nonresidential property" shall mean any property which is not

residential property and is underutilized.

10. "Persons of low income" shall mean (a) in cities with a population

of one million or more persons, 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; provided however that in

the case of an owner occupant of a homesteading project, "persons of low

income" shall also mean those persons and families whose incomes do not

exceed eighty percent of the median income for the state and (b) in the

portion of the state outside cities with a population of one million or

more persons, (i) and within a metropolitan statistical area those

persons and families whose incomes do not exceed ninety percent of the

median income for the metropolitan statistical area in which a project

is located or ninety percent of the median income for the state,

whichever is greater or, (ii) if a project is located outside a

metropolitan statistical area, those persons and families whose incomes

do not exceed ninety percent of the median income for the county in

which a project is located, or ninety percent of the median income for

the state, whichever is greater.

11. " Distressed residential property" shall mean (a) a residential

property which has an occupancy rate by lawful occupants of less than

sixty percent, (b) a portion of a residential property described in

paragraph (a) of this subdivision provided that such portion also has an

occupancy rate by lawful occupants of less than sixty percent, (c) a

residential property which consists of one or two residential units

prior to rehabilitation under this article and which, subsequent to

rehabilitation, will contain at least one additional residential unit,

or (d) a residential property, the rehabilitation of which would

preserve affordable housing currently serving a population whose housing

need would justify its replacement if it ceased to be available.

12. "Project" shall mean a cooperative, condominium, homesteading or

rental project. In cases where any such project consists of less than

the total number of units or the total amount of floor space of a

property, any reference in this article, to a "project", "cooperative

project", "condominium project", "rental project" or "homesteading

project" shall mean that portion of such property which makes up such

project.

13. "Private developer" shall mean a person, firm, partnership or

corporation which is not otherwise included in the definition of

"eligible applicant".