The Albany Common Council has reiterated its support for “good cause” eviction.
Councilors voted unanimously to pass a resolution in support of Statewide Good Cause Eviction, calling for the passage of the bill as written. The panel says the city has been seeing record rent hikes, up 30% from 2011 to 2022.
Good Cause Eviction protects tenants from unreasonable rent hikes and retaliatory or discriminatory evictions. It's been on councilors' radar since 2021. That August, Democratic Mayor Kathy Sheehan signed a package of local fair housing laws including one requiring "good cause” before a tenant could be evicted and prohibiting annual rent increases of more than 5%. In June 2022 a New York State Supreme Court judge struck down Albany’s local law. 10th Ward City Councilor Owusu Anane called that decision a “slap in the face” for tenants. "This outcome demonstrates why the state needs to act on this critical issue," Anane said.
Good Cause legislation that has been promoted on a statewide level would require landlords to justify rent increases of greater than 3% and gives tenants the power to challenge evictions that they believe are arbitrary, retaliatory or discriminatory.
7th ward Councilor Sergio Adams says the need to strengthen tenants’ rights and protections was evident before the COVID pandemic.
“This is something that should have been addressed prior to that, that we knew was a concern, leading to a crisis," said Adams. "And now that we have gone through that crisis, it's even more paramount that we re-install Good Cause Eviction to protect the many tenants who, over the last year and months have been seeing an increase in rents, being evicted. And locally here, we have such a high shelter list where families and individuals may not get into shelter when they are displaced from their homes. And so that becomes an addition to the problem.”
Canyon Ryan, executive director of United Tenants of Albany, says the effort has been picking up steam among progressives and Democrats.
"So Good Cause got the closest it's ever been last year. And missed its final push because the governor had threatened to veto the package that the Senate and Assembly were putting together," Ryan said. "There was a statement that Heastie and Stewart-Cousins released at the end of the legislative session saying ‘we had all these great ideas and the governor threatened to veto it. So we didn't pass it.’ Where they're picking up now is that same deal that was being considered in June, however, it's in the budget. And when it's related to the budget, the governor doesn't have the same right to line item veto and submit all these different chapter amendments, it has to pass it as is, so Good Cause is a big negotiation consideration when we're talking about 485 X. This awful rent regulation rollback plan, potentially codifying HOPS, the homeowner protection program. All of this is going to be tied into this big giant, you know, housing package piece of the budget because the legislature needs to pass something, because the governor needs to pass something. And housing is an issue. So Good Cause is very much on the radar."
Democratic Assemblymember Pat Fahy of the 109th district, now a candidate for state Senate, said in a letter to constituents she would only support an opt-in version of Good Cause Eviction. United Tenants says such a system would effectively ensure that only tenants in the most progressive cities would have protections.
With the issues Good Cause and housing supply apparently joined at the hip, Fahy issued a statement that says in part "any housing package passed by the state legislature must include strong tenant protections." During a February 7th press conference, Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters the two issues should be “separate conversations.”
The legislative session is scheduled to end in June.
The Capital District Association of Rental Property Owners and Apartment Professionals Trade Society of NY did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
