The Albany Common Council typically passes the mayor's budget in November. Councilors are looking to add a residential housing vacancy study to this year's plan.
For years the idea of a vacancy study to accurately gauge housing in the Capital city has been on councilors’ to-do lists.
As they consider Mayor Kathy Sheehan's $226 million budget proposal, they've been watching what's happening in Kingston, where a 2022 housing vacancy study found a vacancy rate below the 5% threshold required to declare a state of public emergency requiring the regulation of certain residential rents.
In July 2022 Kingston's City Council voted to adopt the New York State Emergency Tenant Protection Act. Landlords were up in arms. Early this year the state Supreme Court in Ulster County ruled Kingston can legally impose rent controls for tenants and landlords. An appeal was filed.
Noting Albany's unsuccessful attempts over the last three years to create a vacancy study, Councilor Ginnie Farrell of the 13th Ward would like to ensure one actually gets funded this time around.
"According to the administration, their feedback was, it was something that the Department of Neighborhood Services felt that they could do with the same terminology process that Kingston did, but they wanted to wait to see how that shook out," Farrell said. "The positive is that if it does move forward, then we have a strong path forward for ourselves doing it, that we don't have to be as concerned about having it stuck in the courts the way Good Cause is."
Good Cause Eviction protects tenants from unreasonable rent hikes and retaliatory or discriminatory evictions. Farrell supports initiating an "in house" vacancy study that follows ETPA guidelines.
"I think there's a lot of reasons why our RFPs were not successful and some of them were just... I haven't seen the same amount of success when this has been done through a consultant," said Farrell. "And I think doing it in house, I would have more confidence with it. But I don't know that it's worth waiting for. So from my perspective, I'd like to see a hybrid put in and I'm flexible with it. If people are like ‘no, we've got to go out’ - I would just like to see it in and I'd like to see us move forward this year. So whatever the majority wants to do is great. But, but I would love, my own thoughts are putting something in saying that we would really like to see like we want to see this vacancy study done in this year. If by a certain date, we're not able to do it in house, then we issue an RFP."
Councilors say a May 1 deadline for survey data collection would ensure capture of the student population.
6th ward Councilor Gabriella Romero: " I think we should put it out and try to do it as soon as possible because when I think about residents within our city, I think we should also take into account some of the students but also some of the legislative staff that sometimes are only here January through June. And that's something that we should consider when we're trying to actually take in a vacancy study and determine eligible units for the study," said Romero.
11th ward Councilor Alfredo Balarin, who is a landlord, doesn't think Albany should wait to see what transpires in Kingston.
“So in house or outhouse, I'm a strong believer, I think needs to be in house, when he's done in house, you have people that actually have more of an understanding, versus a company that you bring in, that's just looking to do their study, and not as detailed. And that's nothing against these companies. I just feel that when it's done in house, it's done in a better format,” Balarin said.
Councilors gave the green light for final language to be be drafted and the measure brought for consideration when the panel meets again on Monday.
