§ 902 — Definitions

§ 902. Definitions. As used in this article, the following words and\nphrases shall have the following meanings:\n 1. "Commissioner" shall mean the commissioner of the state division of\nhousing and community renewal.\n 2. "Division" shall mean the state division of housing and community\nrenewal.\n 3. "Municipality" shall mean any city, town or village within the\nstate.\n 4. "Neighborhood preservation company" shall mean a corporation\norganized under the provisions of the not-for-profit corporation law\nwhich has been engaged primarily in one or more of the neighborhood\npreservation activities specified in subdivision five of this section.\n 5. "Neighborhood preservation activities" shall mean activities\nengaged in by a neighborhood preservation company within a\ngeographically defined neighborhood of a municipality, provided,\nhowever, that the division may fund a neighborhood preservation company\nto engage in such activities in unserved and underserved areas of the\nmunicipality lying outside of its initially designated neighborhood\narea, that are designed (a) to construct, maintain, preserve, repair,\nrenovate, upgrade, improve, modernize, rehabilitate or otherwise prolong\nthe useful life and to manage and coordinate the rehabilitation of\nresidential dwelling accommodations within such neighborhood, to restore\nabandoned and vacant as well as occupied housing accommodations to\nhabitable condition; to demolish structurally unsound or unsafe or\notherwise unsightly or unhealthy structures which no longer serve or can\neconomically be made to serve a useful purpose consistent with\nstabilizing or improving a neighborhood; to seal and maintain vacant but\nstructurally sound structures which are capable of being rehabilitated\nat a future time and used for housing purposes; to acquire, where\nappropriate, buildings which contain housing accommodations; to\nfacilitate the disposition of buildings containing housing\naccommodations to individual occupants thereof or to cooperative groups\nwhose members shall be occupants thereof; to assist owners, occupants\nand tenants of housing accommodations to obtain improvements in the\nphysical conditions thereof and in the maintenance and management\nthereof; to administer landlord training classes; and to manage housing\naccommodations as agents for the owners thereof or administrators or\nreceivers appointed or designated pursuant to any law of the state; and\n(b) to accomplish similar purposes and meet similar needs with respect\nto retail and service establishments within such neighborhoods when\ncarried out in connection with and incidental to a program of housing\nrelated activities.\n 6. "Persons of low income" shall mean individuals and families whose\nannual incomes do not exceed ninety per cent of the median annual income\nfor all residents of the municipality within which they reside.\n 7. "Merged company" shall mean a neighborhood preservation company\nmaintaining a contract pursuant to section nine hundred three of this\narticle that has undergone a merger with one or more other neighborhood\npreservation companies, which is also maintaining a contract pursuant to\nsection nine hundred three of this article, that has led the merged\ncompanies to reduce the number of contracts being maintained with the\ndivision pursuant to section nine hundred three of this article to a\ntotal of one.\n 8. "Unmerged company" shall mean a neighborhood preservation company\nthat is not a merged company.\n