Elected leaders representing the town of DeWitt will host a town hall Tuesday evening at LeMoyne College, seeking to gather feedback on potentially enacting “good cause” eviction protections locally.
Members of the Dewitt Town Board and Onondaga County legislators say the town hall will serve as a way to gauge interest in the local law meant to allow tenants to challenge undue rent hikes and evictions filed without “a good cause” in town court.
The town hall will begin at 6 p.m.
The listening session comes at a time when the city of Syracuse is mulling over passage of “good cause,” a process that has been in motion since last August and has remained stagnant since early December. DeWitt is the second municipality in the county to openly consider “good cause” eviction protections. At least another 13 municipalities in the state, including the cities of Ithaca, Rochester, Albany, and Poughkeepsie have enacted a version of the bill.
“Good cause” has been long seen by state and local housing advocates as a tool to help curb staggering eviction numbers in New York. A whittled down version of the legislation was included in the New York state budget last April after languishing in the legislative chambers for five years, allowing for municipalities to opt in.
Under the bill, tenants:
- Could challenge evictions filed in court for reasons not stated in the lease agreement.
- Could contest at eviction hearings rent increases above 10% of the yearly rent or 5% plus the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
- Would be allowed to renew their lease automatically if they are caught up on rent and have abided by the terms of their lease.
“I am a tenant too, I don’t own my home,” said County Legislature Minority Leader Nodesia Hernandez, who represents DeWitt and a part of the city, and is helping coordinate the town hall. “I just think this is an extra tool to help keep people out of the housing crisis and keep people from being evicted and becoming homeless.”
The number of eviction proceedings in DeWitt has been trending up since 2019, the first year the state’s court system started publishing eviction filing numbers.
That year there were only 19 eviction filings, court data shows.
Over the last three years, evictions were temporarily halted and millions in aid was disbursed to pay landlords’ backlogs of rent.
But eviction filings rose to 62 in 2022 and peaked at 125 in 2023 before dropping to 100 in 2024.
Five eviction cases have been filed in January, with the potential for more this Tuesday and Wednesday, the days when the court hears eviction proceedings.
“This isn’t just a city problem, Hernandez said. “You also have constituents in the towns and villages who are struggling.”
Sarah Klee Hood, a town councilor in DeWitt, said the council was moved to action when they heard the story of a tenant who had been living at an apartment complex in the town for more than 30 years. Klee Hood said she heard from Hernandez and State Senator Rachel May’s office, where Hernandez is employed, that the tenant’s situation was a textbook example of why “good cause” was necessary to protect DeWitt tenants.
“He paid his rent every month and he didn’t have any issues,” Klee Hood said.
The town councilor and former congressional candidate said the town council wanted to help and that “good cause” seemed like a good fit for the case, but that they first wanted to gather feedback from landlords and tenants as to how the bill would affect both sides. The first half of the town hall will be dedicated to answering the questions of landlords. The second will feature tenant questions and concerns.
“But at the end of the day, this isn’t a numbers game,” Klee Hood said. “This is a policy that would, at a baseline, simply support our community. We are looking to ensure that we are providing the services and protections that New York has allowed us, while ensuring that we understand any of the implications that will come to landlords and management companies.”
Klee Hood and Hernandez said that the eyes of neighboring leaders will be on DeWitt going forward as the town tries to navigate the passage of “good cause.”
“I don’t know how, if there’s any truth to it, but the city was looking to see what DeWitt would do in terms of enacting our own ‘good cause’ legislation,” Klee Hood said. “From my perspective, that’s a backwards approach. They have the need, they have the warranted density to be doing this. But I’m glad that we’re leading this effort.”
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