N.Y. Public Housing Law § 3: Definitions

§ 3. Definitions. The following terms, whenever used or referred to

in this chapter, shall have the following meaning, unless a different

meaning clearly appears from the context:

1. The term "commissioner" means the state commissioner of housing and

community renewal. Reference in this chapter or in any other general,

special or local law to state commissioner of housing shall be deemed to

mean and refer to the state commissioner of housing and community

renewal which is hereby made the new title of such office.

2. The term "authority" means a public corporation which is a

corporate governmental agency (except a county or municipal corporation)

organized pursuant to law to accomplish any or all of the purposes

specified in article eighteen of the constitution and includes the

following municipal housing authorities established prior to the first

day of January, nineteen hundred thirty-nine pursuant to chapter four of

the laws of nineteen hundred thirty-four and amendments thereof, namely,

Buffalo municipal housing authority, Lackawanna municipal housing

authority, New York city housing authority, Peekskill housing authority,

Port Jervis housing authority, Schenectady municipal housing authority,

Syracuse municipal housing authority, Tarrytown municipal housing

authority, Tuckahoe housing authority, municipal housing authority of

the city of Utica, New York, and Yonkers housing authority.

3. The term "housing company" means a limited profit or limited

dividend housing corporation organized pursuant to articles two or four

of the private housing finance law.

4. The term "multiple dwelling" means an existing building

accommodating three or more families living independently of each other.

5. The terms "municipal corporation" and "municipality" mean a city,

town or village; and the term "municipal" shall be deemed to relate to a

city, town or village.

6. The term "mayor" means the chief executive officer of a

municipality.

7. The term "local legislative body" means: (a) in a city, the board

of aldermen, common council, council, commission or other board or body

now or hereafter vested by its charter or other law with jurisdiction to

enact ordinances or local laws, except that in a city having a

population of one million or more the term shall, as to such city, mean

the officer or agency vested with power under the charter of such city,

or by other law, to act pursuant to this chapter; (b) in a town, the

town board; (c) in a village, the board of trustees.

7-a. The term "governing body of a district" means: (a) in a school

district, the board of education or board of trustees; in the case of

common school districts having one trustee, such trustee; (b) in a fire

alarm district or a fire protection district, the town board; (c) in a

fire district, the board of fire district commissioners; (d) in an

improvement district, the town board, except that if there be a separate

board of commissioners, the term shall mean the town board acting with

the approval of the board of commissioners.

8. The term "state comptroller" means the comptroller of the state of

New York.

9. The term "municipal comptroller" means the comptroller in a

municipality having a comptroller; in a municipality having no

comptroller, it means the chief financial officer of such municipality.

10. The term "state" means New York state.

11. The term "government" includes the state, a municipality and the

federal government, and any agency or instrumentality, corporate or

otherwise, of any of them acting for and on behalf of the state, a

municipality or the federal government.

12. The term "area" means a section of the municipality wherein the

commissioner or an authority or a municipality finds that insanitary or

substandard housing conditions exist. An area may include land whether

improved or unimproved, and buildings or improvements not in themselves

insanitary or substandard, the inclusion of which is deemed necessary by

the authority or the municipality or the commissioner, or for projects

of housing companies by the commissioner, for the effective clearance,

replanning, reconstruction or rehabilitation of the area of which such

land or property is a part.

13. The term "plan" means a plan or undertaking for the clearance,

replanning and reconstruction or rehabilitation of a substandard and

insanitary area or areas and for recreational and other facilities

incidental or appurtenant thereto to effectuate the purposes of article

eighteen of the constitution or any other provision of the constitution

delegating any similar power or providing homes for persons of low

income.

14. The term "project" means a specific work or improvement to

effectuate all or any part of a plan. The term shall include the lands,

buildings or any dwelling units therein, and improvements acquired,

owned, constructed, managed or operated hereunder, to provide dwelling

accommodations for persons of low income, and such stores, offices and

other non-housing facilities as well as social, recreational or communal

facilities, as may be deemed by the authority or municipality to be

incidental or appurtenant to a project. Subject to the provisions of

article eighteen of the constitution with respect to state projects,

such dwelling accommodations may be provided in any section of the

municipality, whether or not such section has insanitary or substandard

housing conditions. A project may be a federal project, a state project,

a municipal project or, subject to the limitations contained in section

seventy-five of this chapter, any combination of these.

15. The term "federal project" means a project aided or financed in

whole or in part, by the federal government.

16. The term "state project" means a project aided or financed in

whole or in part by the state and not by the federal government, except

as may be provided in section seventy-five of this chapter.

17. The term "municipal project" means a project other than a state

project or a federal project.

18. The terms "persons of low income" and "families of low income"

mean persons or families who are in the low income groups and who cannot

afford to pay enough to cause private enterprise in their municipality

to build a sufficient supply of adequate, safe and sanitary dwellings.

19. The term "mortgage" means mortgages, deeds of trust, building and

loan contracts or other instruments creating a lien.

20. The terms "real property" or "property" shall include lands and

improvements, lands under water, waterfront property, the water of any

lake, pond or stream, and any and all easements, franchises and

hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, and every estate, interest and

right therein, legal and equitable, in lands or water, and right,

interest, privilege, easement and franchise relating to the same,

including terms for years and liens by way of judgment, mortgage or

otherwise.

21. The term "obligee" shall include any bondholder, trustee or

trustees for any bondholders or any lessor demising property to an

authority or municipality used in connection with a project or an

assignee or assignees of such lessor's interest, and a government, which

is a party to any contract with the authority or municipality.

22. The term "going state rate of interest" means, at any time, the

annual rate of interest specified in the bonds of the state issued to

provide funds for a loan to effectuate the provisions of this chapter,

and if no such bonds have been issued, then the term means an annual

interest rate of two and one-half per centum.

23. The term "low rent housing" means dwellings within the financial

reach of families of low income and embraces recreational and other

facilities incidental and appurtenant thereto.

24. The term "project cost" means the cost of any or all undertakings

necessary for planning, financing (including payment of carrying

charges), land acquisition, demolition, construction, equipment, and

site development of new buildings, reconstruction, rehabilitation,

repair or remodeling of existing buildings, but, except as to existing

housing company projects, or parts thereof, sold, leased or otherwise

conveyed to an authority, not beyond the point of physical completion,

and the cost of tenant placement service in connection with a project.

In the case of new construction, the "project cost" shall be sufficient

to encourage excellence of architectural design, variety and interest in

building materials, and aesthetic objectives compatible with prudent

budgeting. Where a housing company project, or a part thereof, is

purchased by, leased or otherwise conveyed to an authority, the term

"project cost" may include the cost of such purchase, lease or other

conveyance as determined and certified by the commissioner.

25. The term "condemnation" means the acquisition of real property in

the manner provided by the eminent domain procedure law by the

municipality in which the real property is to be taken.

26. The term "planning commission" means any agency of a municipality

authorized to prepare, adopt or amend the map of the municipality or

empowered to prepare and adopt and from time to time modify a

comprehensive or master plan of the municipality.

27. The term "tenant services" shall include but not be limited to

counseling on household management, housekeeping, budgeting, money

management, child care, and similar matters or services which are

directly related to meeting tenant needs and providing a wholesome

living environment; and referral to appropriate agencies when necessary

for the provision of such services.