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Details of Intro 994: Cooling requirement legislation

0:12:26

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Council Member Restler outlines the proposed legislation (Intro 994) that would require landlords to provide cooling in residential units, mirroring existing heat requirements. The bill aims to address the health risks associated with extreme heat.

The legislation proposes a cooling season from June 15th to September 15th, with requirements to maintain indoor temperatures of at least 78 degrees when it's over 82 degrees outside
The bill includes a 4-year ramp-up period to address implementation challenges and ensure affordability for tenants
Restler emphasizes the need for efficiency standards to reduce emissions while protecting vulnerable populations

Lincoln Restler

0:12:26

We've provided heating in people's homes.

0:12:31

We've guaranteed it for over a 100 years in New York City.

0:12:35

We understood that the right and moral and necessary thing to do to keep our communities safe in the debt of winter is to require that landlords provide heat.

0:12:47

And now to ensure our neighbors stay alive in the summer, we have to provide cooling.

0:12:55

And so our legislation models builds on the really successful work that deputy commissioner Santiago and the team at HBD do each and every year to keep New Yorkers safe during heating season and replicates that same enforcement model so that all tenants are guaranteed access to cooling in the summer and that HBD enforces it.

0:13:17

The exact same penalties and requirements that a landlord faces for failing to provide access to heat in the winter now apply would now apply in the summer if you fail to provide access to cooling.

0:13:29

We would create a cooling season from June 15th to September 15th, and the devices the cooling devices in people's homes would be capable of maintaining an indoor temperature of at least 78 degrees when it is over 82 degrees outside.

0:13:44

That is the temperature at which health risks begin for New Yorkers.

0:13:50

This will be a big change.

0:13:51

A big change for landlords across New York City.

0:13:54

A big change for new development as construction goes up in our communities.

0:13:57

And there are major issues for us to work through with the state, with HCR, to ensure that tenants do not bear the brunt and the burden of these of of increasing access to cooling in their homes.

0:14:12

That is why we've included a 4 year ramp up period in this legislation so that we can have ample time to ensure that state subsidies are in place to keep access to cooling affordable for tenants and to ensure that changes in local law do not lead to increased costs for tenants in New York City.

0:14:35

It's also imperative that we set efficiency standards for these new cooling devices to encourage that we not that we reduce emissions overall to while protecting the health of the most vulnerable.

0:14:50

There are this is a complicated bill.

0:14:53

It's a bold bill, but it's a necessary bill because people are dying.

0:14:59

When you look at the 350 New Yorkers who die every year due to extreme heat in New York City, the number one common factor among them is that they lack access to cooling in their homes.

0:15:14

So we have a moral responsibility to act, to intervene, to make a difference, to make sure that each and every New Yorker is safe from the number one climate killer, extreme heat.

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Acknowledgments for collaboration on Intro 994