The Schenectady City Council is poised to vote on whether to opt into the state’s Good Cause eviction law passed last year.
Good Cause Eviction was signed into New York state law last year. Under the law, landlords must have good cause to evict their tenants. Good Cause includes failure to pay rent, engaging in nuisance behavior and violating lease terms.
However, localities must opt into the law for it to apply to renters. And as Schenectady’s leaders consider joining the list of 16 cities – including Albany – that have already opted in, support remains mixed.
Councilman Damonni Farley brought the legislation to the council for a discussion on June 16th.
“This is a tool to make sure that we have necessary protections for people so they can stay in their homes,” he says.
The first-term councilman says Good Cause eviction legislation can protect tenants and therefore help address need for housing in the Electric City.
“People have been coming to our city council meetings asking us to consider opting in. So, I went and did the research on it and it just seems like a really common-sense tool that would really help people here in the city,” he said.
Jamaica Miles, co-founder of the local advocacy group All of Us, has helped lead community engagement efforts in support of opting in.
“It gives protection against retaliation. Currently, and I know this from personal experience, tenants are afraid to call code enforcement or to complain about needed repairs inside of apartments because you could get evicted,” she said.
But landlords in the city oppose the measure. Chris Morris, a founder of Schenectady Landlords Influencing Change, or SLIC, says Good Cause Eviction measures would result in landlords having less agency over their properties.
“And it would seem that you should be able to run your own show,” she said.
One of Morris’ primary concerns is the cap the Good Cause law places on rent increases.
Morris contends that evicting tenants is already expensive, and placing further restrictions on evictions can restrict landlords’ ability to deal with so-called “nuisance tenants” – those that cause problems for neighboring tenants.
She says opting in may also cause landlords to raise their criteria for applicants.
“That means fewer apartments available to the base of those who are looking. That would be an unintended consequence,” she said.
Councilwoman Doreen Ditoro attends SLIC meetings as a city councilor and says the legislation is harmful to tenants and landlords.
“It puts a strain on landlord-tenant relationships. Landlords may become more selective in preferring tenants that they perceive as low risk vs a high-risk tenant who may not have good references,” she said.
Ditoro worries about landlords leaving Schenectady if the city implements eviction protections.
“A lot of the individuals that own property aren’t going to want to have to deal with it,” she said.
Some, like Councilman Joseph Mancini, are undecided.
He says he needs to learn more to make a decision.
“I want to get some data on evictions, how big is the problem here in Schenectady, is this law necessary, what strategies have we tried,” he said.
The city council newcomer would also like to have more meetings with the groups that would be affected.
“And see if we can align on a solution, because there is not agreement or alignment on the Good Cause and that may or may not be because of the level of understanding,” Mancini said.
Councilman Farley intends to put the legislation before the council for a vote on July 7th.
“I will be more than happy to say to anyone who is like ‘I want to make an investment but I don’t believe in making sure that people have a safe affordable place to live,’ that is not the type of investment that I am interested in entertaining anyway,” he said.
