New York Assembly Bill A11176

New York 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 5/1/26
• Refer: 5/1/26

Caption

Relates to unlawful discriminatory practices against tenants relating to citizenship or immigration status

Summary

This bill amends the New York Executive Law’s housing discrimination provisions to make it an unlawful discriminatory practice for housing providers to ask about or require disclosure of a tenant’s citizenship or immigration status. It also prohibits requiring specific immigration documents, such as a green card, as the only acceptable form of identification, and bars disclosure of a tenant’s immigration or citizenship status to third parties, including federal authorities, except when required by court order. In addition, the bill prohibits retaliatory reporting or threats to report a tenant to immigration authorities when the tenant has asserted rights under the Human Rights Law or other law. The bill preserves the ability of landlords and their agents to verify identity and conduct otherwise lawful tenant screening, so long as they do not impose heightened requirements based on immigration or citizenship status. It also allows compliance with federal citizenship or immigration requirements in federally subsidized housing programs where such compliance would otherwise conflict with state law. The measure would take effect immediately upon enactment.

Impact

The bill would expand the scope of New York’s housing discrimination law by adding immigration- and citizenship-status protections for tenants and applicants within Executive Law section 296. It would regulate the conduct of owners, lessors, managing agents, and their employees by limiting what information they may request, retain, disclose, or use in connection with housing decisions, while preserving lawful identity verification and federally required screening in subsidized housing. The practical effect would be to create new state-law protections against immigration-status-based discrimination and retaliation in the rental housing context.

Sentiment

Available context shows the bill was introduced and referred to the Assembly Committee on Governmental Operations, with no recorded votes or committee transcript excerpts provided. Based on the text, the bill appears to be framed as a tenant-protection and anti-discrimination measure, suggesting a generally protective posture toward immigrant renters. Because there is no recorded debate or vote history in the provided materials, there is no documented opposition or support to characterize beyond the bill’s stated policy goals.

Contention

The main potential point of contention is the balance between tenant privacy and landlords’ screening practices. Supporters would likely emphasize preventing discrimination, retaliation, and coercive immigration-status inquiries, while critics may focus on concerns about limiting landlord discretion, documentation checks, or information-sharing with authorities. A second likely issue is the carve-out for federally subsidized housing, which indicates the bill must coexist with federal eligibility rules and may raise questions about how state protections interact with federal compliance obligations.