A photograph from the Syracuse City Council Chambers showing the council members reviewing documents during an open session.
Councilors sit in the Common Council chambers in City Hall. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current

Syracuse lawmakers on Wednesday tabled an amended version of “good cause eviction” legislation that would beef up tenant protections. 

Ahead of a potential vote at the end of the month, the council appears divided on the bill.

Councilor Hanah Ehrenreich, one of the legislation’s five co-sponsors, said the “good cause” would be reintroduced at the Common Council’s Feb. 23 voting session. As proponents of the bills count potential votes, the deciding “yay” could be in the hands of newly elected council President Rita Paniagua. 

Good cause became the subject of public discussion again this week after being absent from the council chambers for a year. Proponents of the bill say it could be a crucial tool in the city’s tool box to address chronic housing issues plaguing Syracuse — such as sky-high rent increases and scores of evictions. 

Seventeen other upstate municipalities have already enacted local versions of good cause. The state allowed localities to opt into the bill when lawmakers included it in the state budget in 2024. 

Syracuse lawmakers presented an amended version of the bill, tweaking one of good cause’s exemptions. The amendment reduces the cap on the number of units a landlord could own to be exempt from the legislation from 10 to one. 

Amending this exemption would expand the number of tenants in the city who can use good cause protections in court to challenge high rent hikes and unfair evictions.

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.
  • The bill also has a slew of exemptions.

As a potential vote on Feb. 23 looms, councilors appear split on the issue.

Councilors Ehrenreich, Jimmy Monto, Marty Nave, Corey Williams, and Chol Majok re-introduced the measure Wednesday, hoping they might have the votes to enact it. In interviews with Central Current, Ehrenreich, Monto, Williams, and Majok have said they would support the bill.

Nave, who last fall during a Central Current interview said he supported good cause, said Wednesday he was undecided.

“I am going to let the process play out,” Nave said regarding the eventual vote. “I don’t know anything more about it.”

Councilors Rasheada Caldwell, Donna Moore and Patrona Jones-Rowser have said they would vote against the measure. 

If Nave, who did not disclose how he would vote, votes against the bill, the tiebreaking vote would go toward Council President Rita Paniagua. Paniagua told Central Current she supports the bill and would break a tie in favor of good cause.

“I supported it then and I support it now,” she said. “… If there’s a tie, I can break the tie,” she said.  

She was one of eight legislators who voted to pass a resolution in 2022 that advocated for Albany lawmakers to pass good cause in the state legislature.

“I think that we find ourselves at a threshold where we’re trying to fight homelessness, and at-risk families and children, and I think that this is a tool that could help us definitely bring this around,” she told Central Current in October.

What are councilors saying about good cause?

Some councilors see good cause as a way to protect tenants from punitive measures taken by bad landlords against tenants abiding their leases.

“Passing good cause would protect the people who are paying their rent, who would otherwise choose to stay in their properties, who have landlords who aren’t responsive and punitive, raising their rents or canceling their leases,” Ehrenreich said.

Jones-Rowser reiterated her stance on the bill after Wednesday’s session and declined to comment further. 

Moore issued a press statement about good cause on Tuesday night following a Central Current report about the legislation. 

In the statement, Moore wrote she wants to protect tenants and ensure everyone in Syracuse has access to safe, stable, and affordable housing but that she does not support good cause. 

Moore then wrote that the most urgent aspect of the city’s housing crisis is not arbitrary eviction, but unsafe, low-quality housing.

“Families are living with mold, failing heat, plumbing issues, and long-standing code violations,” Moore wrote. “For them, housing instability comes from neglect, not a lack of legal protections.”

New policies should center stronger enforcement of housing code compliance measures, proactive inspections of dwellings, meaningful penalties for violators of the law, and investments in safe housing, she noted.

Other councilors and city leaders say the problems outlined by Moore are real issues, but that good cause is a tool in the city’s toolbox that could help address significant problems tenants face.

“Passing legislation does not stop us from passing anything else,” Ehrenreich said.

Good cause doesn’t obligate property owners to change their business if they are reasonable landlords, Ehrerenich said. 

“It’s part of a bundle system to layer protections. I don’t think that this forces landlords to do anything,” she noted.

Mayor Sharon Owens said in a statement to Central Current that lawmakers should look at every option available to solve the city’s housing issues. Good cause was a part of the mayor’s campaign last year. 

In a short interview with Central Current at the Wednesday study session, Moore reiterated her stance, saying the bill does not help “the most vulnerable.” She said that tenants who receive rental assistance are already protected by federal laws that mandate landlords have a good cause to evict tenants. 

“What we’re facing here in Syracuse, is a crisis of low income housing, and we need to focus on that,” she said.

“I fully support the idea of renter protections. I just don’t think good cause does it,” Moore added.

Moore posited that good cause is a remnant of the economic downturn ushered in by the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the housing issues Syracuse faces, like high rents, are downstream from the state’s halt on eviction filings that lasted from March 2020 to January 2022, she said. 

Good cause was introduced in the State Assembly by Syracuse Democrat Pamela Hunter in 2019.

“I think that when this law was first introduced was during covid and it was done for reasons of people being evicted from their houses for no reason, because they landlords saw an opportunity to raise rents,” Moore said. 

Moore initially said that rent hikes in Syracuse have subsided since the end of the pandemic. 

“Not in the last several years, not since covid ended,” Moore said in response to a question from Central Current about a study cited in the New York Times about the implementation of good cause that indicated rent increases in Syracuse from 2023 to 2024 are the highest in the country.

However, rent in Syracuse has increased steadily over each of the last three years. Data from Zumper, a company that posts real estate and rental listings, shows rent for all units has increased 16% since 2025 while rent for one-bedroom apartments has increased 7%. Both increases are greater than any Upstate New York city, according to Zumper. 

City Auditor Alex Marion hand-delivered copies to the councilors’ office of a report in support of good cause with similar data that covered rent increases. 

Ultimately, good cause is a set of regulations, Ehrenreich said. Being a housing provider, she added, is a business that should be regulated, and good cause is a good first step toward establishing guidelines that are fair for both sides.

“This is an industry, and part of industry is regulation, and the regulation is meant to be fair,” Ehrenreich said. 

Read more of Central Current’s coverage

Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...