Landlords back ‘good cause’ push as budget deadline nears, pen letter to Hochul

ALBANY — Efforts to include “good cause” eviction in the state budget are getting a boost from an unlikely source: landlords.

A group of 104 building owners and landlords from across the state penned a letter to Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders backing the measure, which would prevent renters from being evicted without a designated good cause like failure to pay rent or creating a nuisance, and calling for it to be passed as part of the budget process.

“I think good cause is just well-designed policy,” Jay Straus, a manager with a small, family-owned real estate firm based in Westchester who signed on to the letter, told the Daily News. “I think it will help bolster the infrastructure of the rental market.”

The letter predominantly targets private equity firms and corporate landlords who “buy up buildings, hike up rents, and evict tenants, all in pursuit of flipping properties for a tidy profit.”

“These landlords don’t see tenants as human beings. For them, they are nothing more than ATM machines,” the group writes.

Good cause would give tenants a defense against unwarranted evictions and the right to challenge unreasonable rent increases, defined as more than 3% or 1.5 times the Consumer Price Index.

Both of the Democrat-led chambers in the Legislature included language supporting the “essence” of good cause and enhancing tenant protections that “align with” the long-sought measure in their budget rebuttals earlier this month.

Under good cause, it would be up to a judge to determine if the rent increase is justified. While it does not guarantee a renewal, supporters argue it gives tenants more leverage in negotiating leases.

The state’s powerful and deep-pocketed real estate industry vehemently opposes the measure, which is often described by critics as a form of universal rent control.

“The socialists and far-left lobbyists pushing Good Cause Eviction are now dressing up their reckless campaign as a crusade against ‘corporate landlords,’ when in reality, this bill would do little more than devastate New York’s existing housing supply, raise rents for nearly every tenant, discourage new development, and bankrupt thousands of small property owners,” Greg Drilling, a spokesman for Homeowners for an Affordable New York, a coalition that includes the Real Estate Board of New York and landlord groups.

The fight over the bill, first introduced by Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn) in 2019, has been one of the most intense battles in Albany in recent years. Supporters, their hopes buoyed by the Legislature’s embrace, say the measure must be a key element of any housing package included in the budget.

Harper Bishop, a small landlord and community organizer in Buffalo, said he signed on to the letter to make sure the concerns of smaller landlords is heard.

“The fear-mongering campaign of the real estate lobby doesn’t speak for myself or small landlords and for those tenants who are experiencing precarity and that’s who our legislators and governor are in office to protect,” Bishop said.

Hochul has been less receptive to the idea than her fellow Dems in the Legislature as she has focused on her ambitious plan to address the state’s housing crisis. The governor’s budget proposal includes a sweeping plan to ramp up rezoning and building more affordable housing units across the Empire State.

Supporters of the measure say the fight to include the protection in the budget is more important even after local laws in Albany and Poughkeepsie were struck down by judges in recent months.

“We need safeguards to rein in bad actors and let all landlords succeed — not just those with the least scruples,” the landlords wrote in their letter to the leaders and the governor. “By passing Good Cause protections, we will set down a clear set of rules that curb the worst abuses of the worst landlords.”