STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1565 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 10, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL, HEVESI, MEEKS, TAYLOR, EPSTEIN, SIMON, SIMONE, LEVENBERG, MAMDANI, SEAWRIGHT, REYES, KELLES, TAPIA -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law and the executive law, in relation to designating offenses against homeless persons as hate crimes The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "homeless protection act". 3 § 2. Subdivisions 1, 2 and 4 of section 485.05 of the penal law, as 4 amended by chapter 8 of the laws of 2019, are amended to read as 5 follows: 6 1. A person commits a hate crime when [he or she] such person commits 7 a specified offense and either: 8 (a) intentionally selects the person against whom the offense is 9 committed or intended to be committed in whole or in substantial part 10 because of a belief or perception regarding the race, color, national 11 origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, reli- 12 gious practice, age, disability, homelessness, or sexual orientation of 13 a person, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct, or 14 (b) intentionally commits the act or acts constituting the offense in 15 whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding 16 the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or 17 expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability, homelessness, 18 or sexual orientation of a person, regardless of whether the belief or 19 perception is correct. 20 2. Proof of race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender 21 identity or expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability, 22 homelessness, or sexual orientation of the defendant, the victim or of 23 both the defendant and the victim does not, by itself, constitute legal- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD04221-01-5
A. 1565 2 1 ly sufficient evidence satisfying the people's burden under paragraph 2 (a) or (b) of subdivision one of this section. 3 4. For purposes of this section: 4 (a) the term "age" means sixty years old or more; 5 (b) the term "disability" means a physical or mental impairment that 6 substantially limits a major life activity; 7 (c) the term "gender identity or expression" means a person's actual 8 or perceived gender-related identity, appearance, behavior, expression, 9 or other gender-related characteristic regardless of the sex assigned to 10 that person at birth, including, but not limited to, the status of being 11 transgender[.]; and 12 (d) the term "homelessness" means the set of circumstances in which an 13 individual or family lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime 14 residence, resides in a place not designed for or ordinarily used as a 15 regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, such as a car, public 16 sidewalk or street, hallway, bus or train station, lobby or similar 17 place, resides in a residential program for victims of domestic violence 18 or runaway and homeless youth, or resides in a supervised publicly or 19 privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living arrange- 20 ments, including hotels and motels paid for by federal, state, or local 21 government programs or by charitable organizations, congregate shelters, 22 safe havens or transitional housing. 23 § 3. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 4-c of section 837 of the executive 24 law, as amended by chapter 118 of the laws of 2022, is amended to read 25 as follows: 26 (a) In cooperation with the chief administrator of the courts as well 27 as any other public or private agency, including law enforcement agen- 28 cies, collect, maintain, analyze and make public statistical and all 29 other information and data with respect to the number of hate crimes 30 reported to or investigated by the division of state police, and all 31 other police or peace officers, the number of persons arrested for the 32 commission of such crimes, the offense for which the person was 33 arrested, the demographic data of the victim or victims of such crimes 34 including, but not limited to, race, color, national origin, ancestry, 35 gender, gender identity or expression, religion, religious practice, 36 age, disability, homelessness or sexual orientation of a person, the 37 demographic data of the person or persons arrested for the commission of 38 such crimes including, but not limited to, race, color, national origin, 39 ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, religious 40 practice, age, disability, homelessness or sexual orientation of a 41 person, the county within which the arrest was made and the accusatory 42 instrument filed, the disposition of the accusatory instrument filed, 43 including, but not limited to, as the case may be, dismissal, acquittal, 44 the offense to which the defendant pled guilty, the offense the defend- 45 ant was convicted of after trial, and the sentence imposed. Data 46 collected shall be used for research or statistical purposes only and 47 shall not contain information that may reveal the identity of any indi- 48 vidual. The division shall include the statistics and other information 49 required by this subdivision in an annual report submitted to the gover- 50 nor, the speaker of the assembly, the temporary president of the senate, 51 the chair of the assembly codes committee, the chair of the senate codes 52 committee, the attorney general and the chief administrative judge of 53 the office of court administration. Such annual reports shall be a 54 public record. 55 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.