Section 26-501. Findings and declaration of emergency

The council hereby
  finds that a serious public emergency continues to exist in the  housing
  of a considerable number of persons within the city of New York and will
  continue to exist after April first, nineteen hundred seventy-four; that
  such emergency necessitated the intervention of federal, state and local
  government  in  order  to  prevent speculative, unwarranted and abnormal
  increases in rents; that there continues to exist an acute  shortage  of
  dwellings  which  creates  a  special  hardship  to persons and families
  occupying rental housing;  that  the  legislation  enacted  in  nineteen
  hundred  seventy-one  by  the  state  of  New York, removing controls on
  housing accommodations as they become  vacant,  has  resulted  in  sharp
  increases  in  rent  levels  in  many  instances;  that the existing and
  proposed cuts in federal  assistance  to  housing  programs  threaten  a
  virtual  end to the creation of new housing, thus prolonging the present
  emergency; that unless residential rents and evictions  continue  to  be
  regulated  and  controlled, disruptive practices and abnormal conditions
  will produce serious threats to the public health,  safety  and  general
  welfare;  that  to  prevent  such  perils to health, safety and welfare,
  preventive action by the council continues to be imperative;  that  such
  action   is   necessary   in  order  to  prevent  exactions  of  unjust,
  unreasonable and oppressive rents and rental agreements and to forestall
  profiteering, speculation and  other  disruptive  practices  tending  to
  produce  threats  to the public health, safety and general welfare; that
  the transition from regulation to a normal  market  of  free  bargaining
  between landlord and tenant, while still the objective of state and city
  policy,  must  be  administered  with due regard for such emergency; and
  that the policy herein expressed is now administered locally within  the
  city  of  New  York  by  an  agency  of the city itself, pursuant to the
  authority conferred by  chapter  twenty-one  of  the  laws  of  nineteen
  hundred sixty-two.
    The  council  further  finds that, prior to the adoption of local laws
  sixteen and fifty-one of nineteen hundred  sixty-nine,  many  owners  of
  housing  accommodations  in  multiple  dwellings,  not  subject  to  the
  provisions of the city rent and rehabilitation law enacted  pursuant  to
  said  enabling  authority  either  because  they  were constructed after
  nineteen hundred forty-seven or because they were  decontrolled  due  to
  monthly  rental  of  two  hundred  fifty  dollars  or  more or for other
  reasons, were demanding exorbitant and unconscionable rent increases  as
  a  result  of  the  aforesaid  emergency,  which  led  to  a  continuing
  restriction of available housing as evidenced by  the  nineteen  hundred
  sixty-eight  vacancy  survey  by the United States bureau of the census;
  that prior to the enactment of said  local  laws,  such  increases  were
  being  exacted under stress of prevailing conditions of inflation and of
  an acute housing shortage resulting from  a  sharp  decline  in  private
  residential  construction  brought  about  by a combination of local and
  national factors; that such increases and demands  were  causing  severe
  hardship  to tenants of such accommodations and were uprooting long-time
  city residents from their communities;  that  recent  studies  establish
  that  the acute housing shortage continues to exist; that there has been
  a further decline in private residential construction  due  to  existing
  and proposed cuts in federal assistance to housing programs; that unless
  such  accommodations  are  subjected  to  reasonable  rent  and eviction
  limitations, disruptive practices and abnormal conditions  will  produce
  serious  threats  to  the public health, safety and general welfare; and
  that such conditions constitute a grave emergency.
    * NB Expires April 1, 2012