I. Daneek Miller

There are roughly 3.5 million private-sector workers in New York City, a significant percentage of whom have no access to retirement savings whatsoever.

This bill would facilitate voluntary retirement savings by private-sector workers to a city administered auto-enrollment individual retirement account. Auto-enrollment of employees would be mandatory through payroll deduction for employers with five or more employees who have not offered a retirement savings plan for the past two-years. Employees over 21 years of age who worked more than 20-hours a week would be auto-enrolled with a default contribution rate of 5%. Smaller employers who have not offered and independent contractors who do not have access to retirement savings would also be able to join “Savings Access New York.” Employers would not contribute to the plan and there would be no cost to employers.

The legislation seeks to solve the following longstanding problems with affordable housing:

• Non-Registration – owners fail to register thousands of buildings with tens of thousands of units for which they receive hundreds of millions in tax breaks each year.
• Paper Applications – applicants must mail an application request, receive the application by mail, return the application by mail, and wait hoping nothing got lost in the mail.
• Lotteries and Rejections – three quarters of applications have been rejected in lotteries because individuals apply for the wrong affordable housing for their income.
• Waiting List Corruption – investigations revealed dozens of instances of corruption and bribery surrounding waiting lists for affordable housing.
• Numerous Individual Places to Apply – Multiple websites offered by DHCR,HPD, HDC  and non-profits like Met Council as well as at individual affordable housing buildings.

This local law would create an affordable housing internet portal. It provides requirements for both the portal itself and for units that would be listed on the portal.