Landlord rights nonprofit expands to cover all of upstate
Organization rebrands as it battles good-cause eviction legislation
A group of real estate professionals formerly housed under the New York Capital Region Apartment Association have switched gears to become established as the Apartment Professionals Trade Society of New York.
The housing experts rebranded their organization after undergoing some leadership changes and expanding their coverage to include all of upstate New York.
APTS of NY is an affiliate chapter of the National Apartment Association, composed of homeowners, developers, industry suppliers and property management companies focused on educating homeowners and lobbying for and against various housing legislation.
“The industry has changed dramatically over the past few years, making it harder to own and manage properties, ultimately causing some to exit the industry. APTS of NY strives to reverse that trend by keeping owners local, keeping them informed and ensuring legislation is fair to tenants and owners,” the organization said in a news release.
APTS of NY has lobbied to halt certain legislation from being ratified, such as the proposed good-cause eviction law. The proposed bill did not make it into the state budget this year but remains a hot topic.
Good-cause eviction would prohibit rent escalations of more than 3 percent without justification and end no-fault evictions.
The legislation bars landlords from ending a lease without a lease violation — things like missed rent or other infringements. APTS of NY Board President Kara Rafferty said that goodcause eviction removes landlords’ right to remove a tenant breaking the law for something other than missing a rent payment and that landlords in upstate New York aren’t likely to raise rents “so ridiculously” as those who are downstate do.
“There (are) many ways to solve the problem, but giving the less rule-following tenants a scapegoat only protects some, and the harm is more massive than the solution,” Rafferty said.
While APTS of NY is fighting good-cause eviction, organizations advocating for tenants are pulling for it. Similar statutes already exist in some upstate areas — Albany, Beacon, Newburgh, Kingston and Poughkeepsie — as well as in several other states, including New Jersey and California.
United Tenants of Albany Executive Director Canyon Ryan thinks good-cause eviction is a “fantastic piece of legislation.”
He said contending the bill
would strip landlords of their rights is inaccurate. Rather, the law would mean a landlord can’t evict a tenant without a reasonable purpose, and it would grant renters protection against unjust evictions.
“For the first time, we have been able to tell tenants: Your landlord can’t just evict you because they feel like it,” Ryan said. “People are able to build a home, their family is able to go to the same school, you develop community relationships. Good cause is like enabling community empowerment just by the basic, mere existence of families staying where they are.”
Ryan found that increasing rents and a lack of good cause needed for eviction makes renters, such as himself, a transient population unable to settle into a community and grow.
He believes this legislation could end that.
“We just want to keep tenants in their homes,” he said.
While working to stop goodcause eviction from going into effect, APTS of NY is also advocating for landlord rental assistance and emergency rental assistance programs.
“Long story short, we want to keep funds coming in for those that need them,” Rafferty said.
“A big mission of ours is to create good, safe homes for residents.
“That is what we do. And to do that, we also need to get the rent paid,” she added.