Hempstead, NY Building Safety: Door Locking Hardware (2026)

Chapter 88 of the Town Code, the Housing and Rehabilitation Code, sets door-locking rules for institutional dwellings at § 88-15, "Nursing, rest, convalescent and old-age homes," which supplements Article 4 of the state Multiple Residence Law. Subsection I bars locks on patient-room doors outright, with a narrow carve-out for mental institutions where the enforcing officer sets the conditions. Every required exit door in these buildings must have panic hardware or nonlockable hardware permitting the door to be opened from the inside at all times, the doors must swing outward, and nothing may obstruct them.

An exterior light fixture is required at each exit, kept lit from sunset to sunrise so the exit is visible around the clock. Patient-room doors themselves must be self-closing and may carry a clear one-quarter-inch plate-glass vision panel so staff can check the room without opening the door. Doors to shafts, laundry chutes and dumbwaiter shafts must be fireproof and self-closing as well. These requirements sit alongside the chapter's other life-safety rules for the same buildings: 44-inch minimum clear width on patient-occupied doorways, revolving doors barred from counting as required exits, and fire-retardant paint on rooms, halls, and stairways.

The Building Department, through the officer charged with enforcing this section, inspects for compliance and can vary provisions for mental institutions given the conditions on site.