‘Good Cause’ law more stringent
After vetoing first version, Hudson Mayor expected to sign
The city’s Common Council voted unanimously last week to enact a stringent anti-eviction law to stem displacement in the rapidly gentrifying community of 5,900.
The law would necessitate the automatic renewal of residential leases in the city, ending landlords’ ability to easily displace their tenants at the end of a lease. Versions of the law have been passed or introduced in several communities in the Hudson Valley, including in the city of Albany. But Hudson’s law goes further than its neighbors.
In a statement, Claire Cousins of the Hudson-catskill Housing Coalition said the law “is an acknowledgment of the crisis that our community is currently in.”
“We believe that our City understands what is at stake, and is taking the necessary steps to make Hudson an equitable, fair place for people to remain citizens in,” the statement continued.
The HCHC has pushed for the legislation’s adoption in the city along with Second Ward Alderwoman Tiffany Garriga and Mayor Kamal Johnson, who is expected to sign the resolution into law.
If the legislation is enacted, landlords would have to go through eviction proceedings in front of a city judge to remove a renter at any point in their tenancy. Legitimate reasons for removing the tenant include damaging property, conducting illegal activity at the rental, or refusing to enter into a lease with the landlord. Tenants could still be removed for nonpayment of rent, but not if the nonpayment was due to rent being raised more than 5 percent in a year, though the 5 percent rule does not apply when improvements are made to the property.
The legislation has been pushed up and down the Hudson Valley by Citizen Action of NY, a progressive nonprofit, and Good Cause Eviction laws have also been adopted in Newburgh, with Poughkeepsie’s version passed by its Common Council and awaiting the mayor’s signature.
However, Hudson’s version of the law does not allow landlords to remove tenants if the property is being sold. Newburgh, Albany and Poughkeepsie’s versions of the law all allow tenants to be removed for this reason.
Hudson’s Good Cause legislation originally included language allowing landlords to remove tenants during a sale, but it was vetoed by Johnson.
Johnson said he vetoed the original resolution so the Common Council’s legal committee could update the language to include the “added protections” for tenants, many of whom are displaced when properties change hands.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of people buying property, displacing tenants and flipping them for a higher price,” Johnson said.
Some of these multiunit properties are converted into singlefamily homes, one of the reasons Hudson’s population has dropped 28 percent since 1994, according to census figures.
Landlords could still evict tenants if they wanted to move into the property themselves, according to the resolution.
The resolution was also updated by the legal committee to delete a caveat to the 5 percent rule.
In the original language, a legitimate reason for evicting a tenant for nonpayment when rent was raised more than 5 percent in a year was if “significant market changes relevant to the subject unit” occur.
The housing market in Columbia County has spiked since the beginning of the pandemic, with sale prices rising 40 percent in 12 months, according to a housing report from earlier this year.
The language about significant market changes appears in the Newburgh, Albany, and Poughkeepsie resolutions, along with the language allowing evictions when properties change hands.
Hudson First Ward Alderwoman Rebecca Wolfe said the updated resolution closes “really significant loopholes” in the original legislation that would have “made the law pretty meaningless.”
The resolution must now wait a month before a public hearing, after which Johnson is expected to sign it into law.