Domestic violence advocates across New York State are joining NYSCADV in supporting specific legislation to improve services and expand rights for New York’s domestic violence victims. These include:

Rights of Domestic Violence Survivors and Advocates:

1.     A544A Paulin/S1985 Harckham: Requires police officers responding to DV incidents to take

temporary custody of firearms and extends the time police must hold seized weapons to 120 hours.

2.     A1234 Walker/S551 Brisport: Clarifies that parents are not required to permit child protective services (CPS) representatives into their homes, to speak with them or to allow their children to be examined; requires CPS to provide parents with notice of their rights, including having an attorney present during any questioning, and information about the allegations being investigated when contacting them.

3.     A2590 Hevesi/S1580 Persaud: Adds residential and non-residential DV programs, OVS-licensed crime victim service programs and DOH-licensed rape crisis programs, among others, to designated human services programs eligible for cost-of-living adjustment.

4.     A3506 Reyes/S2235 Gounardes: Prohibits local law enforcement and state agencies from enforcing federal immigration laws, sharing sensitive information with federal authorities or entering non-public areas of state and local property without a judicial warrant and provides a notification of rights.

5.     A5223 Reyes: Permits retired public employees to change their option election or select a new beneficiary if their beneficiary is convicted of a family offense of which the member is a complainant.

6.  A5589 Bronson/S3953 Ramos: Establishes a human services employee wage board to assess pay

     disparities experienced by human services employees, including DV advocates.

7.  A1841 Rosenthal/S2416 Parker: Enhances protections for DV survivors opting to break telecom contracts with abusers by prohibiting companies from transferring contractual or billing responsibility to other account holders and preventing companies from prohibiting a person who has opted out of a prior contract to enter into a new contract.

8.  S3669 Persaud: Requires NYS to provide residential and non-residential DV programs, OVS-licensed crime victim service programs and DOH-licensed rape crisis programs, among others, with a Targeted Inflationary Increase on contracts and reimbursements.

Economic Justice:

1.     A108 Rosenthal/S113 Cleare: Increases the monthly allowance for individuals and families residing in emergency shelters. This allowance hasn’t been increased in more than two decades.

2.     A3038 Rosenthal/S1353 Cleare: Prohibits creditors from enforcing a consumer debt incurred as

a result of fraud, intimidation, identity theft, exploitation of debtor’s personal information or similar

economic abuse perpetrated against the debtor; establishes a right of action by the debtor for

declaratory and injunctive relief against creditors for violation.

3.     A2500 Davila/S246 Persaud: Updates and expands the resources that an applicant of public

assistance may possess without affecting eligibility for assistance.

4.     A4317 Davila/S182 Persaud: Increases the federal poverty level requirement where it concerns the one-time disregard of earned income following job entry for up to six consecutive months.

Housing:

1.     A1507 Rosenthal/S1454 Kavanagh: Increases cash assistance rent payments (the “shelter allowance”) to up to 100% of the fair market rent in the local area.

2.     A1530 Rosenthal: Reforms the method by which New York State funds DV services by eliminating the

per diem reimbursement system and permitting OCFS to enter into contracts directly with DV programs.

3.     A1755 Reyes: Requires New York State to pay all costs to ensure individuals living in temporary shelters, including DV shelters, have access to the Internet.

4.     A3264 Hevesi: Addresses the system-wide lack of shelter for single adults by reimbursing DV providers for any payment differential for housing a single individual in a room intended for double occupancy.

5.     A4669 Solages: Guarantees every tenant across the State has the right to a lawyer when facing eviction; requires courts, judges and landlords to ensure that tenants know about and can use their right to counsel.

6.     S871 Bailey: Requires statewide housing authorities, in reviewing applications for housing, to grant DV survivors the same priority granted to other disenfranchised populations such as the disabled, the elderly and the homeless.

Civil and Criminal Justice Systems:

1.     A53A Paulin/S4592 Gianaris: Allows evidence of a defendant’s prior sexual assault to be admissible in a sexual assault proceeding.

2.     A65 Hevesi/S3938 Hoylman-Sigal: Requires OCFS and OPDV to establish a statewide supervised visitation initiative to ensure professionally supervised visitation programs are available in every county and New York City.

3.     A66 Hevesi/S550 Brisport: To reduce the number of intentionally false calls to the state’s central register of child abuse and neglect, requires a caller making a report to the registry to leave their name and contact information.

4.     A101 Dinowitz/S54 Fernandez: Prohibits the use of voluntary intoxication of a victim as a defense to any criminal charge for sex crimes, if a reasonable person should have known that the victim was incapable of giving consent due to that intoxication.

5.     A2239 Braunstein/S2273 Krueger: Includes texts, emails and other electronic communications in the definition of aggravated harassment in the second degree as it pertains to individuals who intend to harass or threaten another person.

6.     A5143 Dinowitz: Enables parents and their attorneys to obtain copies of court-ordered child custody evaluations and the underlying information supporting the evaluation.

7.     A5787 Rajkumar/S1409 Ryan: Requires justices in towns and villages with a high arraignment volume to be admitted to practice law in New York for at least five years.

8.     A6194 Hevesi/S5998 Skoufis: Known as Kyra’s Law, prioritizes the safety of children in child 
custody and visitation proceedings; sets requirements for judicial training in DV and child abuse; restricts admissibility of parental alienation and other non-scientifically valid theories.

9.     S3519 Scarcella-Spanton: Redefines the term “following” for a crime of stalking in the fourth degree to include the use of certain devices or computers to gain access to track a person or their property without the person’s permission.

Established in 1978, the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NYSCADV) is designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the information clearinghouse, primary point of contact, and resource center on domestic violence for the State of New York. NYSCADV works to create and support the social change necessary to prevent and confront all forms of domestic violence. NYSCADV’s policy agenda employs both legislative and systems change advocacy to support the needs of domestic violence survivors and their families and the programs that support them.