The council voted unanimously to opt in to the state law, which prevents landlords from evicting tenants in qualifying units without legitimate cause. It also allows tenants to challenge excessive rent hikes used to force them out. “Good cause” eviction already applies in New York City, but communities in the rest of the state have to opt in first, and they can set their own parameters to determine how many units it applies to.
Before the vote, Democratic Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano urged lawmakers to vote “yes.”
“Good cause does not prevent landlords from removing bad tenants, or especially ones who are disruptive," he said. "But what it does ensure is that people, especially our seniors, working families and vulnerable residents have basic protections, such as lease renewal.”
Middletown is the largest city in Orange County, with more than 30,000 people. Nearly half of its housing units are rentals.
By opting in, Middletown joins a growing list of Hudson Valley communities to adopt “good cause,” including: Kingston, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Catskill, Croton-on-Hudson, and Albany. Middletown also chose the strongest possible version of the law, defining “small landlords” — who are exempt from it — as those who only have one unit in the state.
The law didn’t face much opposition Tuesday night, but it’s gotten mixed reviews in public hearings over the past few months. Tenants, community groups, and advocacy organizations like For the Many have consistently voiced their support.
At a hearing in March, John Perrino, a board member with the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, said he’s personally seen how eviction is impacting the city’s youth.
“One experience comes to mind: a student walked into the media center and had a complete and total meltdown. Crying and inconsolable, banging her fists on the table," he recalled. "We did what we could, we contacted mental health and we contacted social services. Luckily, one of the faculty members knew the landlord, and he did give them a grace period, but I don’t believe that young lady was ever quite the same.”
Landlords like Tom Grazier, meanwhile, said the law restricts their ability to control their own properties.
“Instead of removing someone before they become a major issue, we’ll be forced to wait until they stop paying rent, break the lease in any other way, or worse, commit crimes against us or other people there," he noted.
Other landlords have said the current eviction process already takes too long, sometimes lasting months. DeStefano argues a lot of prolonged eviction cases are the result of faulty paperwork from landlords, not the process itself.
“Once they made a minor mistake on an eviction application, the timeclock under state law has to start all over again," DeStefano explains. "And that’s why we were able to sit down with Judge Brockett and Judge Cayton — they assured that on any housing issue that, if it was necessary, they would hold extra court sessions to make sure the calendar doesn’t get long.”
DeStefano says the law isn’t meant to burden landlords, but to relieve tenants. He and Fourth Ward Alderman Sparrow Tobin, also a Democrat, say they’ve seen enough examples of arbitrary evictions to know tenants need support.
“If you have a family that has a lease for two years, and their lease expires, and the landlord tries to shake them down for a huge rent increase — which happened here within the last year in Middletown, several times. But on one of the larger complexes, many of the tenants were notified of 40 percent rent increases," says DeStefano. "We did intervene on that, but a lot of the tenants did relocate and leave. But that’s at great expense. And I think that’s what a lot of people that oppose this don’t understand: it’s not just so easy to pick up all your belongings and move.”
"I’m proud that we’re voting on ‘good cause' tonight," says Tobin. "That we can provide some common sense protections for our residents, and protect them really, at the end of the day, from the greed of some bad landlords.”
DeStefano plans to sign the law at City Hall tonight at 7.
