Ithaca Good Cause Eviction Held Up by NYS

By Matt Dougherty

During the public comment portion of the March rst meeting of the Ithaca Common Council, current Deputy Director at the Southside Community Center, Kayla Matos, addressed the Common Council about the necessity for local leaders to pressure representatives in Albany to pass the Good Cause Eviction bill.

In the past, local housing activists in Ithaca have pressured the Common Council to pass a Good Cause Eviction bill of their own but their e orts have been unsuccessful as the city has awaited the opinion of the Attorney General’s o ce regarding whether or not the city had the authority to preempt state rental laws. As a result, the bill has been stalled in the Planning and Economic Development Committee for over a year.

e city of Ithac is a city of renters. According to a report sponsored by the Ithaca Tenants Union and the Democratic Socialists of America, the city has an estimated 7,300 renter households — that’s approximately 70% of the city. Among those, more than 50% are cost burdened meaning that they spend more than 30% of their monthly income on rent and 35% are severely costburdened meaning they spend more than 50% of their monthly income on rent. is shouldn’t come as a surprise since it’s no secret that housing prices in Ithaca are astronomically high. For example, according to a report by Dwellsy — the largest rental listing site in the country — as of February 2023 the median price for a one-bedroom apartment in Ithaca was $2,003 a month. ese sky high prices are cause for concern for tenants who haven’t seen their wages increase with the cost of housing.

A one-bedroom apartment in Ithaca at fair market value should cost around $1,127 a month according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In a blow to the desires of housing activists in Ithaca cities across New York State, on March 2nd the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Albany ruled that local Good Cause Eviction laws are preempted by state law, meaning that they can only be passed at the state level.

Following this decision, Campaign Coordinator for the group Housing Justice for All, Cea Weaver, said “In July 2021, Albany became the rst city in New York to take decisive action to protect tenants from unfair evictions and exorbitant rent hikes by passing common-sense Good Cause legislation. Now, thousands of families could lose their homes.”

While this prevents the city of Ithaca from acting to protect renters before the state does, supporters of Good Cause Eviction like Kayla Matos say that it’s important for local leaders to show support for the legislation because “most of the people in Ithaca are tenants and by supporting this bill you are showing our community that you are standing with them.”

Matos continued saying that as a tenant living in an area without Good Cause Eviction laws in place, she has been subject to the anxiety of having to worry about not having her lease renewed even if she is not breaking any rules of the lease. Matos says that if Good Cause Eviction legislation were in place, renters would have to allow tenants to renew their leases unless the tenant was breaking the contract.

In response, Alderperson Cynthia Brock said that even though the city hasn’t passed Good Cause legislation it ensures tenants similar protections through the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, which was approved by the Common Council in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. e ETPA appoints two tenant representatives, two owner representatives, and ve “public” members who determine what a fair rental increase is every year. In many cases in other communities that’s somewhere around 1-3% annually. It Requires landlords to keep all equipment and services in good working order, gives tenants in ETPA-quali ed units the right to lease renewal, and it outlines that enforcement and regulation is handled by the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, which has the power to reduce rents and sue landlords for civil penalties payable to tenants.

According to the Ithaca Tenants Union and the Democratic Socialists of America, the ETPA would protect roughly 1,900 of the city’s 7,300 renters from rent increases from landlords. at’s a step in the right direction, but advocates of Good Cause Eviction legislation say that their bill would guarantee protections to all renters who don’t break their leases.

Labor Contract

continued from page 3 continued saying that he understood the motivation behind the scare tactics that attempted to get employees to vote against their own interests, but that he was glad that the DPW union members were not persuaded.

Engster added that “there was a printed document prepared by another city bargaining unit member that was titled ‘vote no on a new tentative agreement’.” Engster said that she has “never encountered this type of behavior” in all of her experience in dealing with bargaining units.”

Engster said that it is fortunate that “DPW members saw through the negative propaganda fueled by members of other bargaining units” and that she thanks Mayor Laura Lewis and the new negotiating team for “listening to our members’ and providing a meaningful response to their concerns.”

While the CSEA-DPW Unit and the City have successfully come to an agreement on a labor contract, the Ithaca Professional Fire ghters Association and the Executive Association both remain without a labor agreement. President of the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association and member of the Ithaca Public Workers Coalition, Tom Condzella has said that he is happy for CSEA-DPW Unit but that “there is much more work to be done.”