Housing affordability is a key issue on the minds of voters this election season. In New York, the City of Kingston has stood out for its efforts combat rising rents and a housing shortage. The city has changed its zoning code to allow for the construction of more housing, sought to regulate rents under New York's Emergency Tenant Protection Act, and opted-in to Good Cause Eviction to guarantee more rights to renters.
WAMC's Molly Anderson and Sam Dingman spoke with Lower Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Elias Guerra about Kingston's housing initiatives and how such policies are influencing debate.
Read the full transcript below:
Sam Dingman: So Elias, if you could - start by telling us briefly what is Good Cause Eviction, where did it come from, and how has it progressed?
Elias Guerra: So, Good Cause Eviction was passed by New York State in 2024, and Albany was the first Upstate community in New York State to opt in, followed by Kingston about a month later. The main right is that landlords cannot evict you without “good cause” or for no reason. They can also not refuse to renew a lease just because it has expired. And lastly, they can only raise rent by a certain amount, and tenants can challenge those rent increases if they feel it's you know unreasonable under the law. I spoke with Sumathy Kumar, who's the director of Housing Justice for All, and she said that especially in this housing situation today, it is especially important. Here's Kumar:
Sumathy Kumar: In the Hudson Valley, tenants were facing waves of gentrification post COVID, and they had no recourse to challenge these 50% or 100% rent hikes in some cases, and so that's why we fought so hard for Good Cause Eviction, and we were able to win it.
Elias Guerra: You know, in 2024, there were 14 communities that had signed on, and recently there's about 19 that are opted in. Middletown recently passed it. Monticello recently…Woodstock, and Ulster County is looking to pass good cause eviction. Here's Kumar kind of pointing out that it really demonstrates the needs for tenant protection laws.
Sumathy Kumar: I think we've seen overwhelmingly these cities are opting in, and they're also opting in with stronger Good Cause Eviction laws than what the state originally passed. So they cover more buildings, they're trying to be more expansive, because they're seeing a real need to protect tenants.
Molly Anderson: Elias, you mentioned Kingston was one of the first communities to pass Good Cause Eviction. So I'm wondering, what did you hear from Kingston Alderwoman Michele Hirsch about some of the legal battles that are going on there?
Elias Guerra: Right, so in Kingston, they were one of the first communities to pass Good Cause. But from what she described, actually, the landlords don't have a problem with Good Cause. They also, in 2022, passed the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, a form of rent stabilization. But one of the issues there has been that it is based on this vacancy study, and that has been like a really big source of the contention over like how much vacancy is there in the city, and the Common Council has cited this study that it's less than 5% so that they're you know basically saying that there is a housing emergency, but they cited a very specific number looking at all the buildings in the city, whereas the study actually also included another number of 7%. And landlord groups have cited that basically this was done erroneously, and recently a court of appeals upheld this. So they have cited that there is a housing emergency in Kingston. But that is a big source of tension there. Here’s Hirsch speaking about landlords and how they prefer good cause.
Michele Hirsch: They love Good Cause. They like they came to our hearings for rent stabilization, and it was like, wait, you have Good Cause. You don't need rent stabilization. You know, or the rent guidelines board should use the rent increase cap that Good Cause has. They actually like it here in Kingston.
Sam Dingman: So Elias, in spite of these tensions that you were alluding to, it seems like Good Cause has, generally speaking, been a success. Have there been any shortcomings or setbacks so far?
Elias Guerra: Right, so Kumar from Housing Justice was basically saying one of the biggest problems is that communities do have to opt in, and you know, from her perspective, rent regulations are not something that should have to be opted into, and she pointed to the REST Act, which is the Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants Act. That is something like an evolution of the Emergency Tenants Protection Act, except instead of just looking at the vacancy rate, it would look at a variety of factors. You could look at public data on eviction rates or the homeless shelter population. Basically, Kumar was saying that Good Cause is good, but it's kind of defensive as opposed to having rent stabilization, a more proactive system that puts rent caps and rent controls in place, but of course not everybody is a fan of it. So this is Richard Lanzarone with the Hudson Valley Property Owners Association. Lanzarone is one of the advocates in Kingston that has been pushing back against the ETPA, and here he is talking last year to Jesse King, the former Hudson Valley bureau chief:
Richard Lanzarone: Once you're ensnared in this, the state is constantly asking for reports. So in Kingston, we have a retired property owner, 80 years old, a retired plumber, does his own work, he keeps his property very well, but he's totally computer illiterate. And the state requires these reports to be filed by computer only. Now they had fined him like $14,000 because he's late on filing his reports. Who would want to be a landlord in New York State? You'd have to be out of your mind.
Elias Guerra: So one last note: the REST Act did not pass this year, so I imagine tenant activists will be looking to pass that again in the future.
Sam Dingman: So if I'm hearing you right, Elias, it seems like one of the things that the tenants' advocates are saying is that something like Good Cause Eviction helps out from the standpoint of preventing folks from getting evicted in the immediate term, but it is not a fundamentally, from their perspective, tenant-forward housing policy in the way that rent stabilization measures would be.
Elias Guerra: Right, rent stabilization would be more preventative, exactly, and I think especially the fact that it would look more holistically at, you know, not just this very narrow vacancy rate. It considers other factors, which I think has been one of the main sources of the argument in Kingston.
Sam Dingman: That is our Lower Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Elias Guerra. Thank you, Elias.
