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".
Last modified: February 3, 2019