New York Consolidated Laws, State Finance Law - STF § 80-a. Anti-discrimination in housing fund

1. There is hereby established in the custody of the state comptroller a special fund to be known as the “anti-discrimination in housing fund”.

2. The anti-discrimination in housing fund shall consist of moneys appropriated thereto, moneys transferred from any other fund or sources, fifty percent of all fines and forfeitures collected pursuant to subdivision one of section one hundred sixty-u of the executive law, and fifty percent of all fines and forfeitures collected pursuant to paragraph (a) of subdivision one of section four hundred forty-one-c of the real property law.  Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the state from receiving grants, gifts or bequests for the purposes of the fund as defined in this section and depositing them into the fund according to law.

3. The moneys in the anti-discrimination in housing fund shall be kept separate from and shall not be commingled with any other moneys in the custody of the state comptroller.  Such moneys shall be made available to the office of the attorney general, for programs assisting with fair housing compliance, which includes, but is not limited to, fair housing testing, outreach and education on fair housing protections, addressing and investigating fair housing allegations and complaints, and addressing discrimination in appraisals, including new appraisals and appraisal review, through allocation of grants to duly applying county, city, town or village human rights commissions, or other duly applying county, city, town, village or not-for-profit entities specializing in the prevention of unlawful discrimination in housing, to detect unlawful discrimination in housing.

4. The attorney general shall establish the application criteria and qualifications for the entities for the purposes of the fund as defined in subdivision three of this section that will conduct testing.  The attorney general may enter into contracts with such qualified fair housing entities which may thereafter be renewed, extended or succeeded by new contracts from year to year in the discretion of the attorney general.

5. The monies shall be payable from the fund on the audit and warrant of the comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the attorney general.

6. No later than the fifteenth day of January of each year the attorney general shall report to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly on activities undertaken by the attorney general and any grantee pursuant to this section in the preceding year.  The report shall include, but not be limited to, the current amount of funds available as well as the amount of money granted to any entity that will conduct testing to detect unlawful discrimination in housing for the purposes identified in this section.  Results, data, findings, and other relevant information existing, collected, detected, modified or developed by the attorney general or grantee under this section shall be provided in such annual report following the completion of the obligations in the contract.