ITHACA, N.Y. — The Ithaca Common Council voted on Wednesday to send “good-cause” eviction legislation, a tenant protections policy, to a public hearing and a final vote.
It’s a major milestone for those who support expanding local tenants’ protection. The policy appears to have overwhelming support on city council, which voted 9 – 1 to move good-cause eviction protections one step further in the legislative process.
“I wish this was in place sooner,” Alderperson Phoebe Brown said before voting Wednesday.
The public hearing on good-cause eviction is set for June 20 at 6 p.m. in Common Council Chambers on the third floor of City Hall, and the final vote on adopting the law is set for the July 10 meeting of Common Council.
Good-cause eviction, also known as right to renew, is a policy that limits rent hikes and grants tenants the right to renew their leases as long as they are adhering to it.
It was a landlord’s right to deny a lease renewal without providing an explanation before the New York State Legislature passed a good-cause eviction law in April.
The state law automatically covers housing units in New York City, but the governments of other municipalities in New York, such as the City of Ithaca, must opt in to adopt good-cause eviction protections.
Landlords are still able to legally evict tenants for a “good cause” under the law. There are many reasons a landlord can legally evict a tenant, including if they don’t pay rent or are using their unit for illegal activity, for example.
In addition to the right to renew a lease, tenants covered by the law would see their rent increases controlled. Landlords would be restricted to increase a tenant’s rent upon the renewal of a lease by the lower of two figures: either 10%, or 5% plus inflation as measured by the consumer price index.
However, there are a range of housing units that are exempt from good-cause protections under the state law, which has drawn heavy criticism from supporters of tenants’ protections.
State law exempts units in buildings constructed in or after 2009 from good-cause eviction protections for 30 years. Renters in dorm rooms and sublets are also exempt.
Common Council has a say over two major exemptions outlined in the state law.
Units rented out by “small landlords” are exempt from good-cause eviction protections under the state law. Under the state good-cause eviction law, city officials are able to define a small landlord by the number of units they rent out.
The good-cause eviction law that council is considering would define a small landlord as a landlord that rents one unit, meaning any landlord that rents more than a single unit would have to adhere to good-cause eviction barring any other applicable exceptions.
State law automatically makes units exempt from good-cause eviction protections if they are rented out at over 245% of what the federal government determines as the fair market rent in an area. But each municipality that opts in to good-cause eviction protections can choose to change that percentage to whatever it wants.
Common Council approved setting that percentage at 345%. In the City of Ithaca, 345% of the fair market rent for a single bedroom is about $4,947 a month.
With these exemptions set in a draft law, the City of Ithaca is poised to opt in to a very strong version of the good-cause eviction protections. Mayor Robert Cantelmo has stressed that
he wanted to maximize the number of tenants covered by the protections. Over 70% of the City of Ithaca’s population rents their housing.
In the lead up to the June 20 public hearing on good-cause eviction, the Ithaca Tenants Union, a tenants’ advocacy organization, has canvassed Ithaca to promote attendance.
Tenant advocacy groups pushed city officials for years to adopt a good-cause eviction policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, but officials stopped considering the policy in 2022 after it became clear that adopting it would trigger a lawsuit.
With the sustained local support for the policy in mind, many council members on Wednesday expressed a desire to see good-cause eviction adopted as quickly as possible.
“I’m hoping for a really fast turnover, and that may seem rash,” Alderperson Tiffany Kumar said. “I think that not only do we have to act quickly to keep people in their homes, [this policy has] also been a very, very long time coming.”
Two members of council said they were uncomfortable with the timeline the policy seems to be moving on. Alderperson Margaret Fabrizio was the only council member to vote against sending good-cause eviction to a public hearing and a final vote. She said she wanted to gather more input from landlords and evaluate the “unintended consequences” that the policy could have.
Alderperson David Shapiro said he wanted to create more opportunities for members of the community to express their views on good-cause eviction, and thought the council was moving quickly to adopt the policy. Although he noted that he has received a lot of emails from the community in support of the legislation.
“It was pretty one-sided the emails that council have received in support of this legislation,” Shapiro said.
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