President Donald Trump proposed cutting funding that fuels housing discrimination watchdogs. If money to fund those organizations is not appropriated by Congress, CNY Fair Housing could lose 70% of its funding. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

Syracuse’s Common Council is set to begin deliberating on ‘good cause’ eviction legislation Wednesday. 

Earlier this year, ‘good cause’ — intended to curtail rent hikes and unjust evictions — was included in the state budget and required municipalities to opt in for its policies to take effect. If approved by the council, the bill would allow tenants to challenge one out of every five evictions in Syracuse City Court. 

The council’s decision came about two weeks after Central Current reported just two councilors felt they knew enough about ‘good cause’ to comment on it, despite the legislation being proposed statewide five years ago and being passed three months ago.

“‘Good cause’ is crucial in Syracuse because it would allow a tenant to stay if they want to stay, if they haven’t violated their lease, and if they’re paying their rent,” said Jocelyn Richards, a housing advocate with the Syracuse Tenants Union. 

Councilor Corey Williams, one of the councilors helping to introduce ‘good cause,’ said it is unlikely the legislation will be voted on soon. Williams would’ve preferred the legislation be adopted statewide to prevent a “policy patchwork” but said the bill is important to protect tenants who face retaliatory evictions after reporting code violations. 

Because ‘good cause’ is being introduced as a local law, it must go through a public hearing. Councilors will also discuss the legislation in a public committee meeting, Williams said. The council is still trying to determine whether its housing or economic development committee will host the meeting, Williams said. It’s possible the meeting could be jointly held. 

Advocates believe the legislation could help stabilize some of the city’s housing crisis by keeping more people in homes. More than five eviction warrants are issued everyday in Syracuse. About 2 in 3 eviction filings end with an eviction warrant being issued, one of the highest rates among Upstate cities. 

How it works

The bill the council could adopt would allow tenants to challenge evictions without a “good cause” in court. 

A “good cause” includes non-payment of rent, violations of a lease agreement, negligent damage to the premises, and unreasonable refusal of access to the property for necessary repairs. 

Tenants could, under the bill, also challenge in court a landlord’s ability to refuse a lease renewal. A landlord would have to prove to a judge they have a “good cause” to not renew a tenants’ lease.

Richards said the bill could also help ease soaring rents in the city. Rent for one-bedroom apartments in Syracuse have increased about 22% in just one year, according to one study. 

Under “good cause,” tenants at eviction hearings would be able to contest rent increases above 10% of the yearly rent or the inflation index, whichever is lower. A judge can overrule this if they deem that property tax expenses merit a high rent hike. Judges can also justify rent increases above the threshold if landlords show they’ve completed repairs to the property’s electrical and plumbing systems, among other major structural improvements.

The statewide bill exempts some types of housing from the bill, including:

  • Luxury housing where rent is greater than 245% of the fair market rent. The State Department of Housing and Community Renewal estimates that figure for a one-bedroom apartment in Onondaga County to be $2,244.
  • Housing operated by landlords who own 10 units or fewer in New York. This also applies to owner-occupied buildings with 10 or fewer units and is known among housing advocates as the “small landlord exemption.”.
  • Affordable housing and properties that are already subject to other rent regulations.
  • Temporary housing and condominiums and cooperative dwellings.
  • New construction where the certificate of occupancy was issued after Jan. 1, 2009. These homes will remain exempt for the 30 years after the certificate was issued.

Beyond helping renters remain in their homes, Richards said the bill can also help tenants push property owners to keep up with maintenance on their structures.

“But they cannot do that if they continue to get evicted,” she said. “You can attract all the investment you want into Syracuse, but you also need to maintain existing properties for the people who live in them in the interim. ‘Good cause’ will be crucial there.”

What can be amended and what do advocates want out of ‘good cause?’

State lawmakers compromised to pass “good cause,” requiring municipalities to opt into the legislation rather than making it a statewide policy.

“Good cause” allows those municipalities to amend portions of their local law.  

Richards and other statewide housing advocates pushing to get “good cause” passed in Syracuse said they are looking at the versions of the bill passed in cities like Albany, Ithaca, and Poughkeepsie as a model. 

Richards said the local laws passed in those cities include tweaks to two tenets of the statewide legislation that further strengthen tenant protections. 

Advocates argue the common council should lower the exemption for small landlords from 10 units down to one. 

“Predatory landlords can hide how many units they own behind anonymous LLCs to avoid Good Cause, leaving tenants in the dark about whether they have these protections, unless Syracuse sets the portfolio exemption at 1 unit,” Cea Weaver, the coalition leader at Housing Justice 4 All, told Central Current in an email. 

The high rent exemption, which excludes tenants at apartments where the rent is greater than 245% of the fair market rent from “good cause” protections, should also be higher, Weaver said. 

Weaver proposed that percentage be set at 345%, which is what other model cities have codified. New York’s Homes and Community Renewal data suggests 345% of fair market rent in the county is $3,160.20.

“[That way] it becomes a true high rent threshold, instead of an incentive for landlords to hike up rents just to bypass the law,” Weaver said.

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