Is a growing rental market in Syracuse crating problems that need rent control and other protections for tenants? That’s the topic of a hearing today for tenants to share stories about problems they’ve had with landlords.
Working Families Party officials are helping organize the State Senate hearings over two bills: One concerns good cause evictions, which would require a landlord to have cause to evict someone. Reports show some landlords simply give tenants 30-day eviction notices. The other bill would extend the “The Emergency Tenant Protection Act” to all municipalities; right now it covers just New York City and parts of Westchester, Nassau and Rockland Counties. It regulates rent to protect against large price hikes when market conditions favor landlords getting new tenants.
Working Families Party Membership Organizer Maurice Brown says tenants have faced large rent increases in areas such as Syracuse when a landlord thinks they can get much higher rents. Sometimes people move out, but other times tenants simply pay the higher costs, Brown says, not wanting to be homeless. He’s also got his eye on future developments in the city and their impacts on runaway rents.
“There’s a real fear here in Syracuse with the I-81 project … a fear that people are going to get priced out of their homes. We don’t want to have that. As the city becomes more urbanized, … you get terms like urban renewal, and the expansion of downtown and things like that happen, Landlords see property values rise and they know people will pay for the housing at a higher cost.”
Senator Rachel May plans to attend today’s hearing; Assembly member Pam Hunter is a sponsor of tenant protection bills in her house.
HEARING AT:
DANFORTH MIDDLE SCHOOL
309 W. Brighton Ave.
Brown adds the bills are part of a series of none tenant protections currently being considered in Albany. He’s hoping they can give tenants more power in open communication and negotiation of rent and living conditions. He notes sometimes landlords are from out of the area and says they don’t care about property conditions or tenants needs.
