The bad effects of Good Cause Eviction
As a small property owner in Manhattan’s Chinatown, I am deeply concerned about the Good Cause Eviction legislation that socialist activists and far-left lobbyists are advocating for in Albany and the negative impact it would have on my community.
My family came to this country in search of a better life. My grandfather, who arrived in the 1890s from China, bought a pair of conjoined tenements on Mott St. as a home for his family and a storefront for his future businesses, which have been in my family for generations.
Like my grandfather, I am immensely proud of my family’s properties and all that they represent as a testament to overcoming adversity. The purchase was made during the Chinese Exclusion Act, a hard-fought asset that meant my family was here to stay. I became a carpenter and licensed contractor in part so that I could make all necessary repairs and ensure the building’s significant upkeep is maintained.
My family’s story is not uncommon. Thousands of small property owners across New York — many of them first-generation immigrants — came to this country hoping to build a better life for themselves and their families. Historically discriminated against by big banks and other financial institutions, it was uncommon for many in our community to plan for retirement by purchasing stocks and bonds. So instead, many of us poured our life’s savings — everything we had — into a small property or two with the hopes of sustaining ourselves through retirement and ultimately passing down an asset to our family.
Central to that dream has been building generational wealth for our families. But now, Good Cause Eviction threatens to take away everything so many families have worked for.
We’ve heard city and state lawmakers say this bill isn’t focused on small property owners, but that’s not the case.
For starters, Good Cause Eviction sets limits that fail to account for increases in property taxes and rising operating costs for maintenance, repairs and renovations.
If the time comes when an incremental rent increase is needed to cover operating expenses, small property owners would be required to take each case to Housing Court and pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to explain to a judge why an increase is necessary to fix the roof or replace a boiler. Not to mention, the Housing Court is backlogged with tens of thousands of cases dating back to 2017.
We’ve already seen what unreasonably low rent caps can do, even when well-intentioned. New York’s 2019 rent laws changed restricted legal rent increases for rent-stabilized units, and that caused a spike in units and buildings in disrepair. When building repairs fall by the wayside, fewer units become available, which leads to higher rents for everyone.
But what concerns me most about Good Cause Eviction is that it would strip many of New York City’s cherished neighborhoods of their ethnic and cultural heritage and sense of community.
If Good Cause Eviction becomes law, it would not just put small property owners in the red; it would shut many of us out of the market altogether. Neighborhoods like Chinatown would be overtaken by absentee developers and out-of-state management companies that can afford to operate on smaller margins or forgo rental income for years at a time because they own larger real estate portfolios.
In Chinatown, like other ethnic neighborhoods, small property owners rent to our neighbors and live in our community. We provide safe, quality affordable housing to essential workers — the delivery workers, frontline health care workers, and the New Yorkers who work in the back of kitchens. We are the ones helping keep our communities together despite rising costs and pressures from faceless and soulless conglomerates looking to buy up our neighborhood.
Good Cause Eviction does nothing to protect tenants from eviction for nonpayment and does nothing to address the housing shortage. Instead, we need to focus on solutions like expanding voucher programs to help keep our neighbors in their homes and creating more affordable housing to address New York’s housing shortage.
Having lived my entire life in Chinatown, I’ve dedicated myself to preserving and honoring the traditions and culture of my neighborhood. I’m fully committed to contributing to the well-being of my community and ensuring its longevity for the future, but I cannot be a steward of my community if Good Cause Eviction takes hold.
Albany must reject ideologically driven, unworkable proposals like Good Cause Eviction and get serious about supporting policies that help us build stronger, more resilient communities.